Talking to my nephew after we had just seen the film, he was amazed when I told him that not only does Alex Garland's movie Warfare not have any score whatsoever, it only has a runtime of 95 minutes. This led me to observe that if larger movies like Black Hawk Down are like juice, Warfare is more like concentrate.
Where BHD focused on the Battle of Mogadishu to illustrate the realities of modern war, Warfare is described as "a love letter from co-director Ray Mendoza to Elliot Miller, who after the traumatic events of the Ramadi Operation doesn't remember what happened to him."
Following a lead-up that begins as routine and boring but begins to ratchet up intensely, the majority of the film is a real-time recollection of an attack and casualty evacuation during one of the bloodiest battles of the Iraq War, the Battle of Ramadi.
Viewers are immediately embedded with a platoon of Navy SEALs tasked with setting up an observation post and sniper team in support of a larger operation. A team effort that involves a nighttime infiltration, building security, aerial reconnaissance, intense observation through a rifle scope and tremendous tedium - until it doesn't.
The most astonishing thing about the movie is what it doesn't contain; in addition to a total absence of score (only two songs bookend the film), there are almost no personal moments or talk about what is going on back home, or post-mission plans and the like. No one gets a monologue to discuss the value or worth of their taks, or the Iraq theatre in general. There is very little in the way of banter or memorable lines, outside the stream of jargon and radio chatter as these young men go about their jobs in a manner that exemplifies competence porn - until it doesn't.
It's kind of a shame in some ways, given the excellent cast they have to work with: Will Poulter (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3), D'Pharaoh Woon-a-Tai (Reservation Dogs), Cosmo Jarvis (Shogun), Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things). Despite how little they have to work with at times, they and the entire cast do a remarkable job depicting their focus not only on the mission at hand, but each other, and the degradation of their entire situation. The movie opens with a dialogue-free scene of the platoon listening to music together - one of the few lighter moments in the film - and the directors and cast make the most of humanizing characters that will soon be virtually unrecognizable under not only helmets and goggles, but also dust, blood and emotion.
Many people will find the lingo virtually incomprehensible, and at no point does a character request paraphrasing or a subtitle appear to give context to the audience. (Hell, I enjoy that kind of stuff and understood less than two thirds fo what I heard.) This is purely by design - Garland (Civil War, Annihilation) and Mendoza are striving less for a dramatization and more of a reenactment, hence the stripping away of familiar elements like a score. The context and tone makes it easy enough to follow, even without the details we may be used to from other movies.
The filmmakers do a great job of depicting military monotony laid over a foundation of apprehension, and the surprising swiftness with which the SEALs find their disposition changing - all without narration or a comprehensive understanding of the larger picture. When the environment descends entirely into chaos, the sound design assaults you with explosions as well as the muted deafness that follows. When the wounded scream, it is not just the sound of actor conveying intense pain, but also terror and uncertainty, and it is hard to listen to - again, by design.
CBC reviewer Jordan Weaver took exception to this approach, but the people I saw Warfare with appreciated the opportunity to witness a depiction that is entirely cinematic in some ways, but decidedly untheatrical in others. It feels less like a movie in places and more like time travel, a chance to be a fly on the wall and bear witness to a single hour that changed the lives of so many who were there.
In the end, while I might think of Black Hawk Down as a stronger movie overall, Warfare is probably the most realistic war film I have ever seen, and I am extremely glad I saw it in a theatre.
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