Warfare

Verdict

A tense, immersive war film that leans hard on sensory realism, squad dynamics, and the suffocating chaos of combat. It’s less about plot mechanics than lived experience, which makes it powerful if you want a brutal, anti-glamour battlefield movie.

Best for

• Viewers who like intense, realistic combat cinema
• Fans of procedural, boots-on-the-ground war stories
• People interested in sound design and immersive technical craft
• Audiences open to morally uneasy, conversation-starting war films

Skip if

• You want a broad historical overview of the Iraq War
• You prefer character-driven drama with clear backstories and arcs
• You dislike relentless tension, violence, and sensory overload
• You want a cleanly pro- or anti-war thesis spelled out for you

Overview

Warfare is built to trap you inside a single mission and not let you out. Rather than explaining the politics of Iraq or building a sweeping war narrative, it narrows its focus to the confusion, fear, and physical exhaustion of a platoon under fire. That restraint gives the film its force, even when it also limits its emotional range.

Worth noting

The movie’s biggest asset is immersion. Sound, pacing, and tactical detail do most of the storytelling, and the result is often punishing in the best way. It can feel less like a conventional drama than a sensory reconstruction of memory, where fragments of panic and brotherhood matter more than exposition.

Bottom line

That approach will divide viewers. Some will see an uncompromising anti-war statement; others will find the film too fascinated with its own realism. Either way, it’s a serious piece of craft that understands how war movies can become horror movies without changing a single genre label.

Top Letterboxd reviews

jeremy (2★) · 14439 likes

Why did Alex Garland make this film? And why did A24 choose to distribute it? I felt it was necessary for me to attend an advance screening of this film in order to get ahead of the discourse. I thought that Alex Garland's Civil War was actually an incredibly visceral portrayal of war that benefited—not suffered—from its ahistorical setting. But like everyone else, I was very apprehensive about this film when its trailer first dropped. Still, I gave Garland the… more

cob (4★) · 11326 likes

sound design is a powerful drug

Dan Monaghan (5★) · 10356 likes

You see one person get shot in this film. They’re shot in passing over an unneeded sledgehammer. There’s no better summation of the pointlessness of the conflict in Iraq, which Warfare perfectly captures. This is anti war. This is a horror movie. Keep seeing people say “this is a call of duty mission”. Which call of duty was that? I’d be curious to see how many copies this one sold. Never noticed people lining up to play the “lay around in… more

-ˏˋ mak ˊˎ- (2.5★) · 8206 likes

putting the internet’s favorite white twinks through war is exactly what cinema is all about if you ask me

flaming0god · 7248 likes

saw oomf comment this and had to do the same “America will bomb your country until there's nothing left, then come back 20 years later and make a movie about how sad their soldiers got from doing it.” —frankie boyle

Themes

war trauma, brotherhood, combat realism, memory and reconstruction, anti-war ambiguity, military procedure, survival, chaos and disorientation

Topics

war drama, combat realism, Iraq War, anti-war, immersive sound design, military thriller, psychological tension, ensemble cast, horror-adjacent, 2020s cinema