Director Alex Garland wanted to rethink the traditional war film. His goal was to capture a real-life combat incident over 90 minutes with utmost accuracy. Garland sought advice from Ray Mendoza, a former Navy SEAL turned filmmaker, who had advised on sequences like the dramatic conclusion of Garland’s previous work, “Civil War.”
Mendoza recalled an event from November 2006, when Navy SEALs were tasked with surveillance in Ramadi, Iraq. The mission was jeopardized after being detected, leading to an attack via a sniper hole grenade. As attempts were made to rescue injured soldiers, an I.E.D. went off, worsening the situation.
This specific event is depicted with unmatched authenticity in the film “Warfare,” which debuts in theaters nationwide this weekend. The film avoids typical Hollywood dramatization—there are no backgrounds, no emotional music scores, and no dramatic soliloquies. All that the audience experiences is from the recollections of those present, portrayed nearly in real-time.
The film explicitly states, “This film uses only their memories” instead of the usual “based on a true story”. Garland shared, “There is a unique strength when someone speaks with genuine honesty which cinema rarely leverages. Hearing Ray’s firsthand account left me profoundly moved.”
Garland gained a deeper insight into combat, the essence of being a soldier, and the critical decisions made in the heat of the moment. He realized that this could become a gripping film. Working with Mendoza, they began piecing together the day at Ramadi through the testimonies of those involved.
The film “Warfare” is a tribute to Elliott Miller, a medic and sniper gravely injured that day, with no recollection of the events. Memories can be unreliable, more so in the chaos of combat from years past. Mendoza himself was disoriented following the I.E.D. explosion, remembering only bits and pieces. Consequently, the reconstruction of events was a collaborative endeavor.
“The process forces one to confront the correlation between remembered truth and filmed truth,” Garland remarked. “It’s especially fascinating when two people have different memories but are telling their truth. In such cases, one must decide whether to exclude unreliable elements or choose one version over another.” According to Garland, while a “Rashomon” version of the film could have been made, they chose a different path before filming.
The setting of the film is an economical production created on a former WWII airfield turned studio in a London suburb. Mendoza engaged closely with a group of emerging Hollywood talents, including D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Charles Melton, Kit Connor, Noah Centineo, and Cosmo Jarvis. The actors underwent three weeks of rigorous training mimicking a SEAL program to prepare them for extreme stress and exhaustion. Mendoza confronted the actors with insurmountable challenges, expecting them to fail and learn resilience through reliance on each other.
“The cast felt as if I resented them,” Mendoza explained. “But it was all about applying pressure, teaching them principles, and making them depend on each other.”
The real-life events dictated the film, with no added studio input or narrative elements. Even seemingly trivial moments found their way into the film, like the soldiers energizing themselves with Eric Prydz’s track “Call on Me,” a regular part of their routine.
“It became a ritual for us,” Mendoza commented. “The song was a reminder of how youthful we truly were in those moments.” For Garland, the film dismantles the myth of Navy SEALs as larger-than-life figures, portraying them as ordinary young men. “Trained but vulnerable to concussion, stress, and confusion,” Garland said.
Unlike “Civil War,” “Warfare” does not act as a political commentary on Iraq. “Reality doesn’t need supplementary narratives,” Garland said, observing that always having a political agenda stifles genuine discussion, creating divisions rather than dialogue.
For Mendoza, the film provided therapeutic relief, contrasting sharply with typical war movies, which frequently misrepresent such experiences. “I wish this experience could be shared with every service member,” Mendoza expressed.
The film concludes with a familiar element common to true story films: photographs of the actual people, from the servicemen to the Iraqi family impacted. Some images include the film set where actors appear alongside their real-life counterparts, with faces sometimes obscured for safety.
Garland recognized that this could disrupt the film’s narrative immersion but viewed it as a deliberate move. “I intended to remind audiences of the artistry behind the film while acknowledging the real events and people,” Garland concluded. “It’s a common cinematic technique, yet it felt odd to omit it. It serves as a testament that though a fictional reconstruction, those men were the voices behind it.”