Whoa, Nelly!
Just watched this… and, well… it was pretty hardcore.
The beginning of the film was outright weird. I thought something had gone wrong…
The scenario that is the the beating, pumping bloody heart of the movie starts with a military ‘home invasion’. The way this is handled – in the movie, that is – highlights an ugly truth of war: ordinary civilian life is the first casualty.
The Navy Seal squad, in Ramadi, Iraq, settle into their OP (observation point) positions. Elliot, the chief sniper – also a Corpsman, or medic – doing most of the ‘scoping’, very literally.
After a long slow build-up, with ‘military age males’ assembling nearby, the ominous ‘Allahu Akbar’ starts to be chanted over a PA; civilians clear the area, and you know the action is about to begin.
A grenade is lobbed through the sniper’s viewing hole, and several of the men incur what appear to be relatively minor injuries. A ‘casevac’ – casualty evacuation – is called in.
But as the team attempt to get Elliot to the Bradley (armoured car), an IED explodes, killing one (or both?) of the Iraqi soldiers attached to the group (for communicating with locals), and seriously wounding two of the Americans.
The handling of this scene is very powerful. And very affecting. Lots of war films have started using silence, followed by ‘ringing in the ears’, and tinny sound, after explosions. But here it’s done particularly effectively.
At first you assume Elliot must be dead. His legs are shredded so badly that… well, watch and find out. Also injured – very similarly; ie legs shredded – is Sam, the group’s LPO, or ‘lead petty officer’ (played by Joseph Quinn, who we’d previously seen, in a very different role, in Dickensian!).
Both of these men – like the whole team – are based on real life soldiers. And the film as a whole is based on those soldiers recollections of events. With one of them – Mendoza (the radio guy, played in the film by the improbably named D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) – co-directing the film.
There’s a lot to be processed. From the harshness of the combat, to the interesting depiction of US Navy SEAL (and general contemporary American) military gear and procedure.
It’s a movie with quite a narrow focus. Literally depicting, other than the intro, a near ‘real time’ slice of life/death. And the focus is resolutely on the US troops.
So on the one hand this is a strikingly contemporary and somewhat unusual depiction of modern warfare. The building tension – from humdrum ennui to confused creeping fear – leading up to the ‘action’, and the chaos, stress and horror of combat, are superbly conveyed.
But on another level, this is actually an ages old theme. And in American cinema its antecedents are the ‘Cowboys & Injuns’ movies. The SEAL unit are the beleaguered defenders of the circle of wagons/fort (or in this case, Iraqi home); their attackers are the ‘Injuns’; and the Bradleys (and other support) are the cavalry.
A very powerful film. Which I think I’ll watch again.
PS
A fascinating and I think brilliant aspect of the film is the soundtrack. The film starts in silence (even the MGM lion’s roar is silent!), segueing into the music video of Call On Me, still in silence.
Then the music kicks in, and we see the SEAL team enjoying a moment of hyper-macho bonding, to the steamy video and pumping feel-good music.
But, after that, as GQ writer Killian Faith-Kelly succinctly puts it, ‘a notable absence of score … allows the audience to arrive at their emotional experience of the film without any musical instruction.’
Compare that to the unbearable and relentless sonic assault (I found it a form of torture!) of the Dunkirk soundtrack.
The latter was, in my opinion, grotesquely heavy-handed. And egregiously manipulative. The sound design of Warfare, by comparison, is an object lesson in stripped down excellence.
Oh, and talking of stripped down… I liked the little touch of unabashed realism whereby we get a glimpse of Sam’s genitals, as they treat his appalling wounds. Actually a prosthetic. But a nice touch, nonetheless.
And staying, briefly, with cock ‘n’ balls… sportsmen have their ‘boxes’. Surely by now soldiers, with their helmets and body armour, ought to also have thigh/crotch armour?