Upon Further Review: “Warfare” (2025)

TULSA, Okla. – “Warfare” isn’t like other war films. It doesn’t strive to entertain or be a bombastic thriller. Instead, it wants to tell a story as close to reality as possible, fitting into the genre of war films that is brutal and immersive.

“Warfare” isn’t a fictionalized account by a third party, but it’s told via the memories of those who experienced it themselves. It’s a depiction of war as hell on earth told by those who were there when it happened.

The film is co-written and co-directed by Alex Garland and former U.S. Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza. The cast includes D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai, known for his role as Bear Smallhill on the TV series “Reservation Dogs,” as well as Will Poulter of “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “The Bear,” Cosmo Jarvis of “Shogun,” Joseph Quinn of “Stranger Things,” Charles Melton of “Riverdale,” and Michael Gandolfini of “The Many Saints of Newark.”

The story that is told is that of Mendoza and Elliott Miller – played by Woon-A-Tai and Cosmo Jarvis respectively – and of their team of Navy SEALs during the Second Battle of Ramadi in the Iraq War in 2006. What was supposed to be a simple surveillance mission turns into an all-out fight for survival.

The team of SEALs, along with two Iraqi translators, are sent on a surveillance mission in Ramadi, where they infiltrate a civilian building using the darkness as cover. From there, the team uses the house as an overwatch and surveillance outpost to watch the nearby market.

Their position is soon compromised and they come under attack from insurgent forces. The SEALs, realizing the gravity of their situation, attempt to evacuate using their Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV), but their initial avenue of escape is cut off when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) detonates next to it, wounding two of the SEALs and killing one of the translators.

Miller, to whom the film is dedicated, is seriously wounded, and eventually loses his left leg and the ability to speak.

Mendoza is one of the film’s co-directors, along with “Civil War” director Garland, and as such, Woon-A-Tai worked closely with him during filmmaking to ensure everything was as close to reality as possible. In addition, the actors playing the SEALs received training from real Navy SEALs of SEAL Team 5 in order to prepare for the role, including going through a sort of boot camp to train.

In an interview with IMDB, Woon-A-Tai shared his experience of essentially playing one of the director’s of the film, “It’s a whole different experience. … Everybody played a true-to-life person, but my guy was right behind the camera, and wrote this, and this is probably one of the most traumatic experiences of his life, right?” Woon-A-Tai said.

“There’s a lot of pressure just besides having him behind the camera, knowing how important this story is, not just for Ray, but also for multiple veterans who need an outlet to show their families how they may have felt or what they might have went through. I’m not a veteran, but this project may hopefully do that for a lot of them.”

Mendoza and Garland made this film to honor Miller and others who were affected by the incident. They seem to have made this film both as a form of catharsis and as a celebration of survival.

“Warfare” takes on the gritty reality in its set-up and its framing. Based on events and first-hand accounts, including Mendoza’s Silver Star documentation, the majority of the dialogue consists of military jargon. There is also very little in the way of music or film score with the only exceptions being in the beginning and end of the film. The viewer is more immersed and drawn into the story, almost taking them into another world that isn’t always accessible to outsiders.

The film ends with a series of photos showing the actors with their real life counterparts, whose faces are blurred for anonymity, and two words that show exactly why they made this film:

“For Elliott”.