From Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s previous collaboration to other gripping cinematic portrayals of modern war,there are plenty of great movies to check out before A24’s new war movieWarfare. Mendoza is a former U.S. Navy SEAL who served in the Iraq War. After he worked as the military supervisor onGarland’s dystopian thrillerCivil War, the two got to work on a movie that would bring Mendoza’s real warzone experiences to the screen.Warfarechronicles a mission carried out by a platoon of Navy SEALs in real time.
Garland and Mendoza co-directed the film, which allowed Garland to focus on the technical stuff behind the camera while Mendoza handled the actors in front of the camera. By all accounts,Warfarecaptures the chaos of battle with intense accuracy. It currently holds a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 92%, indicating that we could be looking at a new war movie classic.BeforeWarfareis released on April 11 in the U.S. and April 18 in the UK, there are plenty of similar war movies andprevious Garland productionsto watch.
Annihilation
Cast
Alex Garland’s Annihilation is based on the novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer. It follows a group of explorers - comprised of biology professor Lena (Natalie Portman), psychologist Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh), physicist Josie Radek (Tessa Thompson), geomorphologist Cassie Sheppard (Tuva Nvotny), and paramedic Anya Thorensen (Gina Rodriguez) - as they enter “the Shimmer”, a quarantined zone of mutated plants and animals caused by an unknown extra-terrestrial phenomenon. Lena agrees to enter the Shimmer in search of her husband, Kane (Oscar Isaac), who was sent in as part of a special forces operation.
It might belong to a very different genre, butGarland’s sci-fi horror epicAnnihilationseems to have a very similar tone and narrative toWarfare.They’re both about a tightknit group of gun-toting heroes venturing into hostile territorywith no one but each other to rely on. InWarfare, that group is a platoon of Navy SEALs fighting in Iraq. InAnnihilation, they’re a bunch of scientists wandering into “The Shimmer,” a strange quarantined zone where alien intervention is mutating the plants and animals.
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Annihilationmight not haveWarfare’s realism, but it does have its intensity. The scene in which a mutated bear torments the scientists by mimicking the voice of their dead friend is as terrifying as any battle scene. The nail-biting tension ofAnnihilationproves that Garland will nail the horrors ofWarfare.
The Hurt Locker
From director Kathryn Bigelow comes The Hurt Locker, the 2008 oscar winning war thriller film that follows Jeremy Renner as Sergeant William James and his bomb disposal team as they navigate beyond enemy lines during the Iraq War. The movie explores the trauma and stresses the soldiers face as they attempt to disarm active explosives on the field, with the repercussions beginning to take their toll on the squadmates.
While there are plenty of war movies about World War II and the Vietnam War, not many filmmakers are daring enough to tackle modern war in the way Garland and Mendoza have inWarfare. The gold standard for movies about modern warfare is Kathryn Bigelow’s Best Picture-winning gemThe Hurt Locker.
The Hurt Lockerhas a 96% rating onRotten Tomatoes.
The Hurt Lockerrevolves arounda bomb disposal unit being targeted by insurgents in the second year of the Iraq War.The Hurt Locker’s depiction of combat might not be 100% accurate, but its portrayal of the devastating psychological effects of the horrors of war is spot-on.
Ex Machina
Young computer programmer Caleb is selected to participate in a groundbreaking experiment by evaluating the human qualities in a new and improved female artificial intelligence. But in the luxurious, isolated mansion of the man who created this technology, all may not be as it seems.
Garland’s directorial debut,Ex Machina, doesn’t have a lot in common withWarfare, but it was an instant indication of what a great filmmaker he was.Ex Machinais a tense three-hander about the ever-evolving relationship between a low-level computer programmer, his eccentric boss, and the seductive android playing them both against each other.Ex Machinaestablished Garland’s razor-sharp command of cinematic suspense, which would serve him well as co-director ofWarfare.
Black Hawk Down
Black Hawk Down recounts the harrowing true story of a U.S. military mission gone awry in Somalia. Tasked with capturing a warlord, elite soldiers find themselves in a fierce battle against Somali militia forces.
WithWarfare, Garland and Mendoza have set out to create one of the most intense viewing experiences in war movie history. Playing out in real time, it won’t have any superfluous plot points or character arcs; it’s just a 95-minute descent into the hell of war.
Once that helicopter goes down and the troops are stranded in enemy territory,Black Hawk Downbecomes a non-stop harrowing account of the mayhem of ground-level combat.
Very few movies have been able to pull this off in the past, but one of the most effective efforts is Ridley Scott’sBlack Hawk Down. Once that helicopter goes down and the troops are stranded in enemy territory,Black Hawk Downbecomes a non-stop harrowing account of the mayhem of ground-level combat.
Civil War
Civil War is a 2024 action thriller from writer and director Alex Garland. Starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, and Stephen McKinley Henderson, Civil War takes place in the near future and shows the United States entering a new Civil War after California and Texas attempt to separate from the country.
The best movie to watch beforeWarfarewould be Garland’s last directorial effort,Civil War.Civil Wartakes place ina dystopian alternate America that has erupted into an unexplained civil war. The film portrays a nightmarish vision of firefights and bombings on the streets of the United States. It doesn’t explain the political specifics of the war; it portrays the consequences of deep political divisions in the abstract. Not only is it another war movie with a similarly intense style; in many ways,Warfareis a companion piece toCivil War.
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Alex Garland’s new A24 blockbuster Civil War makes a bold cautionary statement about a divided and war-ridden United States under fascist rule.
When Garland was directing the movie, he brought real-life veteran Mendoza on board to make sure its portrayal of warfare was as accurate as possible (even if the war itself was fictional). After forging a strong working relationship onCivil War, the two reunited to take their hauntingly realistic cinematic depiction of the heat of battle to the next level with a movie based on Mendoza’s real experiences in a real war.Warfareis promising to be even more intense thanCivil War— andCivil Warwas already pretty intense.
