Review: Alex Garland’s boots-on-the-ground brutality in 'Warfare' is visceral, vivid and purposefully empty
"Warfare" trades plot for pulse-pounding realism in this stripped-down, nerve-shredding portrait of modern combat.
Alex Garland is done philosophizing.
If “Civil War” was his warning siren, “Warfare” is a gut punch — no metaphor, no bigger picture, no soapbox. Just one blisteringly tense, boots-on-the-ground descent into chaos.
Set during a single day in Ramadi, Iraq, “Warfare” follows a platoon of Navy SEALs through the kind of mission that’s gone sideways before the boots even hit the dirt. Garland strips the war movie down to its rawest essentials — no rousing speeches, no slow-mo flag waving, it’s hard to even catch names for half the soldiers. It’s not about who they are. It’s about what they went through.
And what they go through is hell.
From the first bullet crack to the final soul-sucking silence, “Warfare” delivers 96 minutes of uninterrupted tension. Garland, always an expert in atmospheric dread, dials it to eleven here. The camera moves like a ghost in the chaos — not quite documentary, not quite cinematic — just enough to keep you disoriented, like you’re right there choking on dust and adrenaline with the rest of them.
The sound design is among the film’s most stunning tools. Explosions roar, gunfire shreds the mix, and then suddenly — nothing. The silence of ringing ears cuts deeper than any mortar blast. It’s a sensory overload, then sensory deprivation.
But while the tension is relentless, so is the lack of narrative. This isn’t a story so much as a reconstruction. There’s no dramatic arc, no hero’s journey. The film operates like a brutal memory — jagged, incomplete, unfiltered. That creative decision is both its power and its limitation. Where “Civil War” felt like it was trying to say everything, “Warfare” refuses to say anything. No politics, no commentary, just “Here’s what happened. Make of it what you will.”
Yet it’s hard not to find at least one takeaway in the film’s final moments.
In the last scene, as the SEALs withdraw having gained nothing and lost plenty, the camera lingers not on them — but on the Iraqi family whose home became a battlefield. Their confusion and uncertainty say what Garland doesn’t: “What was it all for?” The enemy regroups. The soldiers leave. The civilians remain — broken, displaced, collateral.
It’s a haunting closing image that reframes everything prior, and for some, it may not be enough. But for those willing to sit in the discomfort, “Warfare” is less a war film and more an experience — one that never asks for glory, and never offers relief.
It’s harrowing, immersive, and unflinchingly honest. But if you’re looking for a story, “Warfare” is here to remind you: war doesn’t always give you one.
Star Rating: 3 out of 5
“Warfare” is now playing in theaters.