Warfare

Crafted from the memories of the soldiers who lived through events, Warfare documents a Navy SEAL platoon deployed at night into a two-story home in the Anbar Province. Narratively weak, the film doesn't attempt to put events of the film into any historical context, nor does it offer any explanation as to why this location is of any strategic importance. Instead we're thrown into the situation with the (mostly interchangeable and underdeveloped) soldiers who live through the lulls and extreme action that make up modern warfare as they attempt to survive and escape a situation that quickly grows untenable.

Directed by Ray Mendoza (who was one of the soldiers) and Alex Garland, the events of the film are obviously quite personal, but the stripped down structure of the film also means we don't really get to know any of the characters except as soldiers deployed to Iraq in 2006. The performances are strong throughout the film, although there's not much character work..

The action sequences are some of the most impressive war scenes shot on film, but it takes some time to get to them as the film is equally interested in highlighting the tedium of soldiers awaiting orders which makes up long stretches of the film. As an exercise in filmmaking it's certainly a success. Whether or not it results in a good film is debatable.

Garland provides a visually-impressive exhibition that is certainly of interest given the skill and detail worked into the story. However, even with as well as these sequences are choreographed, Warfare is not a film I would likely ever return to. In capturing soldier-level view of modern warfare we never look past this one battle or grow to understand the players in any real depth or how its outcome was good, bad, or completely indifferent to the wider Iraq War which would continue for another five years.

• Title: Warfare
• IMDb: link