Warfare movie review: Bareboned film on battle of Ramadi accurately showcases futility of war

Does the busy street market have too many young men walking around? Now, does it have too few? Is the market emptying? Why are all the men going into one building? What is that car driving up to this building, and what is the thing being taken out of its boot? And the call to prayer, what is that about?

If quiet fills the house, but for the scribbling of notes about the operation and the peeing of SEALS into bottles as they take duty breaks, sound bombards and stuns when the men call in a “show of strength” and US planes fly in for that, zooming close to the ground and rattling every living being and standing structure. An IED blast hits a tank and day turns instantly to night, with the men taking their time waking up to distorted, muddled senses and the sounds of their own screaming. There is no hiding those screams as pain and fear wipe away any stoicism, with streaks of blood on the floor and the insides of a body on the street staring the men in the face.

The determination of the men to not leave their severely injured buddies behind is the one flourish of heroism in Warfare. For the most part, shot almost in real time as the SEALS team is ambushed, and waits desperately for a difficult rescue, Warfare wants us to look past the helmets, the bullet-proof jackets, the gear and the guns, at very young men just trying to survive.

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Poulter leads a cast that does what is required of it, being as spare and as unsparing as Mendoza and Garland want them. Woon-A-Tai plays Mendoza himself, with this film a real account of a day survived by Mendoza, a former Navy SEALS, in Ramadi. Jarvis plays the sniper Elliott, the man who almost died that day, and to whom this film is dedicated.

Mendoza has talked about making Warfare to honour the real Elliott who, apart from his legs, lost his memory of what had happened that day of November 16, 2006, in Ramadi. Warfare, the filmmakers say, has been made with “as much accuracy as memory allows”.

Of course, Mendoza’s memory does not extend to the scared Iraqi family and their destroyed home. But it is telling that as that fateful day ends, the family and the other Iraqis emerge haltingly from their homes, left with the losses.

The Battle for Ramadi was one of the fiercest chapters in the US invasion of Iraq, and while it pushed the pendulum a bit, it swung right back soon after. It also saw one of the first deaths of a Navy SEAL in the Iraq war.

In its ambition, Warfare is smaller than Garland’s recent Civil War, which had Mendoza as a consultant on the battle parts, and which faltered when it strayed into politics. However, it’s good to remember that it is the ambitions of men that have led mankind into battles like Ramadi’s. About time we had this brutal look at the cost.

Warfare movie cast: Will Poulter, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Cosmo Jarvis, Joseph Quinn, Aaron Mackenzie
Warfare movie director: Alex Garland, Ray Mendoza
Warfare movie rating: 4.5 stars