Warfare (2025)
Real warfare isn’t as sexy as we imagined.
Presentation:
Assuming the details of this mission are accurate, this film is uncomfortable in all the right ways. As a result of the realism, the film doesn’t entertain us as it is portrayed in real time recounted by the actual soldier’s memories. There are moments of mundaneness with unexpected conflict. When things go south, we experience and endure the mission just like the soldiers. That means waiting 5 minutes for an evacuation vehicle or hearing your comrades scream in agony for literally 40 minutes straight. This film doesn’t glory war, it’s intended to relive it in the most immersive way possible at the cost of being complete un-cinematic. Camera movement is very gimbally and the image is very digital looking with the shallow depth of field. CGI is quite strong and the warfare is not convincing. The budget ultimately feels cheap despite A24 putting 20 million dollars into it. Bullets are sprayed randomly, the enemy is invisible, the entire experience is basically presented through audio and slow-motion blurriness.
Conclusion:
I didn’t really like this film but I can see why some would. It’s not for casual audiences looking for an action packed war film or live action Call of Duty. It’s for those that like truck driver simulators or enjoy the accurate depiction of protocols to experience what war actually is. And it’s ugly, messy and not as heroic as you’d imagine. For some, that realism might be cool, but for the same reason I wouldn’t want to watch a snuff film over a horror serial killer film, this wasn’t for me. There’s little entertainment value and honestly I felt disappointed. Maybe this docudrama style war film would work for me if the combat was at least decent. This will undoubtedly come across as disrespectful, but considering they are NAVY seals I really imagined they would be a little more competent and react like trained professionals. But they were sloppy, human, exactly what should actually happen in a real, stressful, life or death situation. I’ve just watched too many war films and I guess I’m ignorant enough to think that experienced soldiers would be more resilient in the aftermath of disorienting concussive blasts. Instead, we just watch humans dazed and paralyzed from fear screaming for an hour. But at least we learn something new every day and that might be well worth the price of admission. Gone are the days of brazen commando heroism.
Recommendations
Do we care about the other side of WWII?