Warfare | Discussion Thread | A24 (Cowritten by Alex Garland) (2025)

[daemonova]

Flames. No notes. Garland’s ability to stay apolitical is pretty intriguing.

 

[Hersh]

Intense. That's the word which sticks out for me. Glad I watched this.

2nding Intense.
.

and lol I also thought I pulled up the wrong movie at the start lol.

 

[Rick Fox at UNC]

Trash film. The problem is, the definitive films and documentaries detailing that era have already been made. There is nothing more to add at this point.

A serious filmmaker would have to emerge to really bring something new to the subject. That probably happens ten or twenty years from now.

Better to spend an afternoon watching old PBS Frontline documentaries (The Dark Side, Bush's War, Cheney's Law, etc.) than this nonsense, because actual accounts are far more interesting than sensationalized war porn.

Also, just read Ghost Wars and Directorate S by Steve Coll and The Way of the Knife by Mark Mazzetti. shyt, I would suggest watching old Charlie Rose interviews over this.

First Tier:
PBS Documentaries (The Dark Side, Bush's War, Cheney's Law)
United 93
Generation Kill
Zero Dark Thirty
American Sniper
The Report

Second Tier:
Restrepo
No End in Sight

 

[daemonova]

6/10

 

[987654321]

Trash film. The problem is, the definitive films and documentaries detailing that era have already been made. There is nothing more to add at this point.

A serious filmmaker would have to emerge to really bring something new to the subject. That probably happens ten or twenty years from now.

Better to spend an afternoon watching old PBS Frontline documentaries (The Dark Side, Bush's War, Cheney's Law, etc.) than this nonsense, because actual accounts are far more interesting than sensationalized war porn.

Also, just read Ghost Wars and Directorate S by Steve Coll and The Way of the Knife by Mark Mazzetti. shyt, I would suggest watching old Charlie Rose interviews over this.

First Tier:
PBS Documentaries (The Dark Side, Bush's War, Cheney's Law)
United 93
Generation Kill
Zero Dark Thirty
American Sniper
The Report

Second Tier:
Restrepo
No End in Sight

I’d say the opposite. I thought “American sniper” was pure trash. I loved “Zero Dark Thirty”. I loved and enjoyed “The Hurt Locker” purely from an entertainment standpoint, because it’s spectacularly far from reality.

I can deal with some of the “root of the problem” documentaries, but so many are made by people who lived it all through 24 hour news, YouTube clips, etc. their work and message just comes off as whiny and half assed, it bores me. I’d much rather watch the work Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, who embedded for extended periods of time, and wanted nothing more than to make a human study.

There’s always more stories to tell from 2002-2014. Countless things happened that the public has never heard about. As long as they tell the stories with passion, and it’s nothing like “American Sniper”, I’ll be there to watch. I probably won’t watch anymore documentaries, on the subject, unless I live to see Ken Burns and his daughter make one.

I did love, feel at home, and feel real emotions watching “Generation Kill”, and “Restrepo”. Those two, “Hornets Nest”, and “Only the Dead” are probably the best representations.

If the goal is to try their best to capture combat and portray it as accurately (not precisely) to people who never have or will experience it, then I wouldn’t call it “War Porn”.

From what I’ve heard “Warfare” is much more than that. I’ll give it a watch sometime this week, now that I’ve convinced my girl to watch it with me.

 

[Rick Fox at UNC]

I’d say the opposite. I thought “American sniper” was pure trash. I loved “Zero Dark Thirty”. I loved and enjoyed “The Hurt Locker” purely from an entertainment standpoint, because it’s spectacularly far from reality.

I can deal with some of the “root of the problem” documentaries, but so many are made by people who lived it all through 24 hour news, YouTube clips, etc. their work and message just comes off as whiny and half assed, it bores me. I’d much rather watch the work Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, who embedded for extended periods of time, and wanted nothing more than to make a human study.

There’s always more stories to tell from 2002-2014. Countless things happened that the public has never heard about. As long as they tell the stories with passion, and it’s nothing like “American Sniper”, I’ll be there to watch. I probably won’t watch anymore documentaries, on the subject, unless I live to see Ken Burns and his daughter make one.

I did love, feel at home, and feel real emotions watching “Generation Kill”, and “Restrepo”. Those two, “Hornets Nest”, and “Only the Dead” are probably the best representations.

If the goal is to try their best to capture combat and portray it as accurately (not precisely) to people who never have or will experience it, then I wouldn’t call it “War Porn”.

From what I’ve heard “Warfare” is much more than that. I’ll give it a watch sometime this week, now that I’ve convinced my girl to watch it with me.

The opposite of what?

Are you arguing just to argue about a bunch of material you've never read and films you haven't even seen?

 

[987654321]

The opposite of what?

Are you arguing just to argue about a bunch of material you've never read and films you haven't even seen?

I’m mostly arguing the first paragraph, And got caught up saying some of the shyt you mentioned was good too.

I’ve seen plenty of docs/movies, and read plenty of accounts/novels from the period, even been asked to write my own. Some of us went there and lived it in real time, maybe you too.

I didn’t think my response required that much pissiness, this early. Outside of those cheap budget b/c movies on streaming, I don’t think the subject is exhausted, we’ve barely scratched the surface.

 

[choc_cardigan]

This wasn't that bad at all

 

[Roid Jones]

Very intense film

 

[OJ Simpsom]

Get ya legs blown off and make a movie about it brehs

 

[987654321]

Just finished this. My wife was like “oh my gaaaaWwWwWwdDdDuh, this is too fukking much…” during most of it. I spent most of the beginning “Just get the fukk out!” “Why are you still theReEeE?!” And “why the fukk would you give up air in that neighborhood? Just fukking leave!”. It was a firm reminder why I hate on SEALS, and why the Army hates having them in their AO.

I liked that it was just an isolated vertical slice of the incident. It would have been cool to explain the situation going on in Ramadi in 06’, especially with units like 1-26 Inf and 2-2 Inf. I think 1st AD ended up there when the Anbar uprising happened too. So my CV was happening around the clock around Anbar Province, Baghdad, Sadr City, Mosul, Triangle of Death, etc. you could make 1000 movies like this.

Kind of annoyed they couldn’t get 3 actual Bradley IFV’s or CFV’s for filming.

It’s not the greatest or scariest war movie, it probably won’t be the most memorable. It just sets out to tell the story of a fight that could have gone much worse, given the place/time, and decisions made leading up to contact.

In a way it indirectly tells the story of Iraq in 2006. Especially how it showed them “borrowing” the house, and the fighters coming out to at the end. Also the audience is able to see the bad decisions and minimum support, because the bush era pentagon was trash. A lot of units were really deployed with what they actually NEEDED until the surge in 07’.

I Was pleased that it kind of showed the “ugly” parts and mistakes. Like the team leader passing off command to the other team leader because of the mental and sensory overload.

Overall, I recommend. Some may think it’s stupid, while others may enjoy. I think it was well done. I’m glad it wasn’t on some overly romanticized, Clint Eastwood, “American Sniper” or “Lone Survivor” bullshyt.

 

[WTFisWallace?]

Fire. shyt was tense from initial boots on the ground until just before the 3rd set of bradleys/evac came AND they made it past the gate.
I emphasize "and" because I thought the neighborhood soldier were set off another rocket/IED.




Really like that they (at least seemingly) didn't polish any decision making. I literally said wtf 2 times, and was genuinely befuddled at least another 4 times. I didn't know if I was tripping/ignorant or these nikka were making terrible decisions. Like the move to make it clear that they were regular people fukking up and not some super team like we usually see depicted. The decision to sledgehammer the door as wild.

But with how close everything was shot, made it clear to me/the audience that you shouldn't really be monday morning quaterbacking it with the soldiers.


- Chef's kiss on the ending showing the neighborhood soldiers coming out not in celebration, but just on some 'we held it down for another day'. Feel like that single scene kinda evened the whole movie out in terms of seeing it as two sides and not totally glamorizing the invading force. That hit more than any of the the family scenes. Director did not "pick a side".


- The camera sitting with breh who didn't get out of the bradley during the 2nd set of bradleys came great directorial work there. I felt the mix of shame/shellshockedness/slight relief. All of the shellshocked shots were amazing, providing a reality check of any questions that the audience might have had (why aren't you helping buddy drag yall mans back inside?)


- gave me Black Hawk Down vibes, but as if it was an ordinary occurrence in the early phases of the Iraq war. Unpolished tactics, on persistent resistance. Like how the zoomed down to this level. Of just half the unit. I don't do anything close to this......but can definitely relate to a degree of both being overwhelmed, trying to get help, but knowing the other person is busy af too. And the opposite of I know my co-worker is super overwhelmed bordering on being unsafe...but I got just enough stuff going on myself, to where I'm not overwhelmed but I can't divert to much attention or time away to help them out. Just gotta keep swimming on your own.


- the inital strafe runs / walk bys on the 2nd story was them boys were really up on em. If that was true to life, that was some bold as shyt on the Iraqis part.

- the grenade scene was great, the IED scene amazing. crazy to have to mentally rebound from that.


- I wonder what was the logic behind having the two interpreters provide security downstairs. Not to shyt on those guys, but it just seemed like an unsafe setup for the whole night.

 

[Super Cheech]

Missed catching this in theatres..
But pre-ordered the 4k UHD.

 

[Diunx]

I was rooting hard for the Arabs, holy shyt are American soldiers fukking evil a$$holes.

Invade that home and completely destroyed it, when they were doing the first evac they sent the two arab translators out first in case the arabs started firing.

These are y'all heroes?