By Bob Grimm
Director Alex Garland follows up last year’s chilling Civil War with another violent, visceral experience in Warfare, his account of a real-life event that happened in 2006 during the Iraq War.
Garland and co-director Ray Mendoza embed the viewer with Navy SEALs on a scouting mission that goes terribly wrong. The soldiers are attacked while hiding in a house, and the film doesn’t hold back on the horrors they experience.
Warfare feels authentic, for good reason: Mendoza was one of the soldiers, and is portrayed in the film by D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai. The filmmakers go to extremes both visually and sonically to re-create the terror of the failed mission.
Mendoza co-wrote the script, and the film is dedicated to his friend and fellow soldier Elliott (portrayed in the film by Cosmo Jarvis), who suffered grave injuries but survived.
The attack is depicted in real time, and once it gets going, it doesn’t let up. A sequence following an explosion puts the viewer directly in the middle of the carnage, complete with impaired hearing and vision. It’s early in the year, but this film needs to be remembered for Academy Awards consideration when it comes to sound design.
The cast also includes Will Poulter and Joseph Quinn, and some of the actors are required to scream in agony for a large part of the running time. The film is 95 minutes long, and 95 minutes is enough. It’s a good watch, but a tough.
Garland’s output won’t be getting any prettier, because he’s returning to the land of the zombies, writing the script for Danny Boyle’s sequel 28 Years Later, 23 years after penning the script for 28 Days Later.
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