Ivan Radford | On 24, May 2025

Directors: Alex Garland, Ray Mendoza
Cast: D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Joseph Quinn, Noah Centineo, Finn Bennett, Michael Gandolfini, Charles Melton
Certificate: 15

There are war films and there are war films. There are the ones that go all-out on the sweeping historical details and geopolitical significance. There are the ones that zoom in a specific time and place. Warfare is the latter, but even then feels distinct from the pack.

Based on the real-life Battle of Ramadi in November 2006, it is based on the testimonies of the soldiers who were present. We find them taking control of a house in the Iraqi city in the middle of the night. Occupying two separate apartments in the building, their mission is provide overwatch for a separate operation taking place. Things go awry from there.

While most war movies tend to have star-studded casts that trade banter and key personal information before the conflict starts, what’s immediately notable about Warfare is that it doesn’t do any of this. The script, by Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, drops us into events and, crucially, lets them unfold in real-time – we’re simply immersed in the chaos and rubble for as long as the men themselves are, and have to keep up.

The cast are unfiromly excellent and convincing, with a lived-in chemistry – whether it’s rooted in friendship or obeying orders, they’re a tightly knit unit of loyal men, even amid the quiet moments of waiting. They speak in technical jargon that we can understand through deduction based on the little information we have, and we learn to tell the men apart not just through their faces and voices but also through their roles. Will Poulter is the increasingly frazzle commanding officer Erik, Charles Melton is the composed leader Jake, Cosmo Jarvis is veteran sniper Elliott, Joseph Quinn is lively right-hand-man Sam, and D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai is Mendoza himself, an observant comms man.

Garland’s previous effort, Civil War, was a blistering and tense journey through an imagined conflict. While that was carefully apolitical, Warfare is bruisingly free of commentary of opinion. It’s a matter-of-fact retelling events without any flag-waving sense of honour or critical anti-war posturing. The result sits somewhere between The Hurt Locker, ’71, Black Hawn Down and All Quiet on the Western Front, filtered through the opening 25 minutes of Saving Private Ryan.

It’s riveting, dizzying and nail-biting in its simplicty and directors Mendoza and Garland (Garland reportedly took more of a supporting role) create something truly powerful through their bold storytelling. Every now on then, they cut to eerily silent footage from surveillance drones overhead – only to return to the unfolding panic and blood, where the screams of an injured man continue almost non-stop. It’s all over in 95 minutes – but it’ll take longer than that for your nerves to settle.

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