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Movie review: WARFARE (2025)
In the heat of battle, all warriors are replaceable, so why attempt emotional attachments with single-use soldiers?
Preparing for warfare.
WARFARE (2025) Written & Directed by Ray Mendoza & Alex Garland / Cinematographer: David J. Thompson (2.00:1) / Design: Mark Digby / Editor: Fin Oates / Music: Simon Astall / Acted by: D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton, Noah Centineo, and Michael Gandolfini / Production Company: DNA Films / Distributor: A24 / Rated R / 95 min.
From All Quiet on the Western Front and Objective, Burma to The Deer Hunter, Saving Private Ryan and The Hurt Locker, each generation boasts a war film so gritty, so intense, so vivid in its realistic depiction of the horrors of war that it promises to make every combat film that came before it look like The Green Berets. Now add Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland’s Warfare to that list. This nerve-jarring real-time portrait of a group of gallant men facing near-certain defeat accomplishes what it sets out to do, even if it leaves one questioning the value of the undertaking.
Video:
Trailer: WARFARE
An outpost brimful of salt-petered machismo (and without the benefit of release) gathers together and eggs on an ensemble of scantily-clad peelers. An average night at a Gentlemen’s Club or a platoon of pent-up Navy SEALS, rifles erect, stationed in Iraq and preparing for battle by taking their joint frustrations out on a bootleg Aerobicise video? Platoon Alpha One has successfully seized a two-story apartment building, complete with a family of four occupying the downstairs flat. The manner in which technology significantly influences the strategic planning process — particularly the continuous monitoring of the environment from above — proves a vast improvement on the pull-down map and pointer of yesteryear.
Based on co-writer/co-director/ex-SEAL Ray Mendoza’s service in the Iraq conflict, the film relies exclusively on the memories of the survivors to advance the narrative. We never get to know any of these characters, and that may well be the filmmakers’ point; in the heat of battle, all warriors are replaceable, so why attempt emotional attachments with single-use soldiers?
Memories of survivors can add suspense, but that alone won’t shape drama. The cinematography is razor-focused; no overuse of handheld cameras to mimic reality and tension. The experience plays as authentic to the ears as well as the eyes: inside the tank, gunfire ricochets like raindrops against the tin roof. Radio interplay between the soldiers moves at the speed of bullets. When a voice on the other end asks how to find the platoon, a soldier replies, "Look for the blood in the smoke. We’re there.”
As a technical exercise in how a group of men consumed by the jaws of war pull together, it can't be beat. But take a few steps back and see it for what it is: the most expensive training film ever produced. **
Here's something you might be interested in.
Movie review: WARFARE (2025)
In the heat of battle, all warriors are replaceable, so why attempt emotional attachments with single-use soldiers?
Movie review: WARFARE (2025)
In the heat of battle, all warriors are replaceable, so why attempt emotional attachments with single-use soldiers?
Preparing for warfare.
WARFARE (2025) Written & Directed by Ray Mendoza & Alex Garland / Cinematographer: David J. Thompson (2.00:1) / Design: Mark Digby / Editor: Fin Oates / Music: Simon Astall / Acted by: D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton, Noah Centineo, and Michael Gandolfini / Production Company: DNA Films / Distributor: A24 / Rated R / 95 min.
From All Quiet on the Western Front and Objective, Burma to The Deer Hunter, Saving Private Ryan and The Hurt Locker, each generation boasts a war film so gritty, so intense, so vivid in its realistic depiction of the horrors of war that it promises to make every combat film that came before it look like The Green Berets. Now add Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland’s Warfare to that list. This nerve-jarring real-time portrait of a group of gallant men facing near-certain defeat accomplishes what it sets out to do, even if it leaves one questioning the value of the undertaking.
Video:
Trailer: WARFARE
An outpost brimful of salt-petered machismo (and without the benefit of release) gathers together and eggs on an ensemble of scantily-clad peelers. An average night at a Gentlemen’s Club or a platoon of pent-up Navy SEALS, rifles erect, stationed in Iraq and preparing for battle by taking their joint frustrations out on a bootleg Aerobicise video? Platoon Alpha One has successfully seized a two-story apartment building, complete with a family of four occupying the downstairs flat. The manner in which technology significantly influences the strategic planning process — particularly the continuous monitoring of the environment from above — proves a vast improvement on the pull-down map and pointer of yesteryear.
Based on co-writer/co-director/ex-SEAL Ray Mendoza’s service in the Iraq conflict, the film relies exclusively on the memories of the survivors to advance the narrative. We never get to know any of these characters, and that may well be the filmmakers’ point; in the heat of battle, all warriors are replaceable, so why attempt emotional attachments with single-use soldiers?
Memories of survivors can add suspense, but that alone won’t shape drama. The cinematography is razor-focused; no overuse of handheld cameras to mimic reality and tension. The experience plays as authentic to the ears as well as the eyes: inside the tank, gunfire ricochets like raindrops against the tin roof. Radio interplay between the soldiers moves at the speed of bullets. When a voice on the other end asks how to find the platoon, a soldier replies, "Look for the blood in the smoke. We’re there.”
As a technical exercise in how a group of men consumed by the jaws of war pull together, it can't be beat. But take a few steps back and see it for what it is: the most expensive training film ever produced. **