You haven’t seen a more authentic war movie than this, I promise you.

WARFARE was on my radar 1) because it’s distributed by A24 and 2) it’s a war movie. No other reason to want to see a movie. Other than the poster, I didn’t see much else on the film. Based on most of what I seen in this genre, I had some expectations. Those expectations were not met as I was watching but I soon realized the gravity of what I was seeing.

If you haven’t seen this and are expecting a exciting action movie, don’t waste your time. This one is very cerebral. The movie is prefaced by saying it is drawn from memory of the soldiers involved. Then is shows a picture of a house. A real photo taken. After the movie was over, I realized how significant that was for the movie.

A Marine team occupies a house providing overwatch for a mission being conducted. After some time, the enemy get close enough to drop a grenade in a hole the sniper was using. This cause minor injuries but signaled it was time to leave. Upon extract, an IED goes off killing one of the interpreters and seriously injuring 2 of the marines. What follows shows the depth of the effects of war, of things going wrong, of taking care of wounded, trauma and psychological turmoil. They do what they can to stabilize the casualties and request another CASAVAC. They are denied but a 2nd team comes to their location. They provide security, call for the CASAVAC again and force them to come. Everyone gets out safely.

It doesn’t seem like much. There were a lot of missions being conducted around that time. A lot of these instances happening. What separates this movie from other is the authenticity. Now I know some of the die hard war movie buffs would probably bring up Zero Dark Thirty. But I have seen interview from individuals who were on that team and they confirmed some scenes happened very differently. WARFARE doesn’t have any fluff. This movie was written and directed by Ray Mendoza who was the JTAC Communications Officer on ground. They also had other members of the unit assist with the gun fight scenes and coach up the actors on shoot move and communicate. To add to the authenticity, they shot the movie at the same house where it all took place in Iraq!

Understanding all this made the movie hit different. Being active duty myself, I felt what they felt. I understood what they were going through. I, myself have never been in war, but being in the Army, in combat units, you get familiar with things quick. Understanding all the training you do to prepare for situations that you never expect to be in. When it happens, you go through real trauma. You lean on your training to get you through all the while dealing with the reality of the horrors you’re seeing.

I don’t think a movie has been brought together like this before, at least not a war movie. WARFARE did okay in theater but I encourage military and civilian alike to go see this. Really take it for what it’s worth.