You know a movie is good when you can’t stop thinking about it after you finish it. It’s been three weeks since I watched Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s Warfare, and I still can’t get it out of my mind. Warfare was one of my most anticipated films on the upcoming 2025 movies schedule. The sounds were haunting, and the acting was incredible, but what hit me like a ton of bricks that I can’t stop thinking about was how REAL the movie felt.
I was a big fan of the movie Civil War last year, so I was stoked to hear that Garland was immediately following up with Warfare. I loved how he told the story about journalists going into an active warzone. Civil War’s ending left room for debate, which added to the depth of the story for me. It gave me hope that his latest project would be just as good. And let me tell you, it was better.
Hollywood Loves Making Sensational Movies About War
best war films, but some are more fantastical than others.
There have been some incredible war films made that lean more into realism. Black Hawk Down is a personal favorite of mine. We see clearly how brutal and chaotic that war can be. We see how scared and tired the soldiers are, and we see the mental toll it takes on soldiers when they are under fire. The extra layer is that the movie was based on the Battle of Mogadishu, which is a real event. These elements combine to give us a movie that doesn’t romanticize war, making the movie very impactful.
However, for every realistic film about the pain and devastation of war, there are plenty more that fall into the bucket of unrestrained boys’ adventures. Big knives, bigger guns, and one-line zingers abound. The Rambo movies are a great example of war movies that I feel fit this. The violence is over the top and highly stylized. Another example would be any of The Expendables movies. The action is relentless and choreographed in a way that feels more like a dance than a scene in war.
As cool as it is to see Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone walk away from a building being blown up or take out a whole bunch of bad guys without any issues, that’s not even close to what happens in real life. These perfectly executed impossible stunts and nonsensical explosions might be fun to watch, but don’t reflect reality.
American Sniper. There is a scene when Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) notices that a man has a bruised elbow. Veterans can tell you that snipers will lie prone (flat on their stomachs, up on their elbows) for hours, which leads to them having bruised elbows. It’s a specific detail that some might miss, but people who know what it means immediately pick up on. When asked about making the film, Garland shared with CNN:
“It’s an exercise in trying to recreate a real sequence of events as accurately as possible.”
via CNN
Warfare review. The Warfare cast did an incredible job of humanizing how real men react in war. Some were scared, while others kept themselves even-keeled and able to function. They were battered and bruised and didn’t jump back up right away to start killing more bad guys.
As we follow the Navy SEALs of Alpha One on their journey, shit hits the fan, and they have to regroup. Therein lies Warfare’s true brilliance. The reality of war is ugly, scary, and suffocating in a very un-Hollywood way.
get out of my head. The portrayal of shock, panic, and pain was gut-wrenching. There wasn’t anything pretty about it.
War is not loud all of the time. An old adage that a friend shared with me summed it up perfectly. It was something like, “warfare is months of boredom punctuated by moments of extreme terror.” Many war films depict elaborate fighting and constant action. The reality is anything but that. Warfare showed that the team was waiting around for orders. They were taking meticulous notes and watching the area. They were radioing in information and reporting on activity in the area. There was a lot of waiting around. Until all hell breaks loose.
A24 movie schedule in the future.