Alex Garland teamed up with Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza to deliver a visceral, raw portrait of war in the new A24 film Warfare that must be seen in IMAX with the best sound system possible.
That is to say, I assume that would be the necessary setup to fully connect to this experimental, experiential film—I viewed it on a typical screen with standard audio.
And there lies the rub: it’s very difficult to weigh a movie that seems to rely so heavily on a special environment for engagement, especially when most people will likely not have the opportunity to see it in that format.
Still, the film is tense and technically excellent throughout even on a lesser screen. The story follows an American unit of soldiers under siege and their attempts to evacuate safely. I would have been on the edge of my seat had I had any connection to the characters. I can honestly say I walked out of the theater without remembering a single character’s name.
By sacrificing well-trod Hollywood trimmings for added realism, the film also discards many core elements of storytelling. Characters don’t have arcs, they barely have normal dialogue (they communicate largely through military jargon and devices). Even as professional training begins to crack under the pressure and carnage, we don’t get a strong window into the people underneath the uniform.
One major caveat: I, like many others, walked into this movie a few minutes after its posted showtime expecting the typical cushion of 15 to 20 minutes of previews. I was seated at 4:32 for the 4:30 showtime, but the movie was already humming along. I can only estimate that I missed two minutes of the film, which may have given a brief glimpse into the camaraderie of the soldiers, but I doubt it would have greatly changed my reaction to the film.
In a sense, Warfare can be seen as less of a story than a reenactment with the best filmmaking equipment around. It is an interesting experiment, to be sure, to see war up close without any schmaltz shoehorned in.
For those worried this could be a jingoistic piece of propaganda, those concerns can be safely set aside. While you may root for the American soldiers since they are the protagonists, the movie foregoes making moral judgments of its characters and even shows a real moment in which the American troops coldly ask Iraqi translators to step out basically as canaries in a coal mine for the Americans.
As with Civil War, the sound design is fantastic in this film, with an extended section following an explosion that rings like tinnitus and puts you in the state of mind of the soldiers blindsided by the blast.
That’s the movie at its best, as a sensory experience of the nightmare of war. I will always support big swings and experiments, but the results may vary by person. I struggle to see this having much staying power, especially on home TVs.
If you’re interested in this at all, see it now while in theaters while you can. And if at all possible, see it in IMAX.
