'Warfare', a commentary on this war movie set in the Iraq War

"Warfare," a war film directed by British filmmaker Alex Garland and veteran Ray Mendoza, was recently released.

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Mendoza was a member of the Navy SEALs, the famous special operations unit of the United States Navy. The film is set during the Iraq War, specifically in the city of Ramadi on November 19, 2006, in the days following the battle that took place there between forces of the United States, the United Kingdom and the new Iraqi Army against Islamist insurgents from the Mujahideen Shura Council, supported by terrorists from Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

"Warfare" is based on the true events experienced by Mendoza's platoon, supported by several US Marines and Iraqi soldiers, in combat against insurgents. This film deviates from the norm in war films: there is no protagonist, or rather, all the soldiers who appear in the feature film are, in a way, protagonists. The film does not aim to be reflective: it is pure action, a demonstration of the activity of a military unit that finds itself immersed in combat in an urban area. Thus, "Warfare" does not have great aspirations, but it is an excellent film.

On the military side, it must be said that great attention has been paid to the details, which is understandable given that one of the directors is a Navy SEAL veteran. The uniforms, the equipment, the weapons, the conversations... Everything is done with great realism. The only drawback is that instead of M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (they are referred to as such in the film), British APCs FV432Warrior appear, but this is because the film was shot in the UK.

A detail that will catch the attention of many military enthusiasts is that in this film the Navy SEALs wear UCP camouflage, also known as AT digital or ACU, adopted by the US Army in 2005. It is not one of the SEALs' usual camouflage, but they did use it, especially in the early years of the Iraq War and, above all, when SEAL operators were embedded in US Army units, to allow them to go more unnoticed. This last reason is also why the SEALs in this film do not wear any kind of insignia to identify them as such. In fact, the only thing that indicates in this film that you are watching SEALs is their radio callsign "Frogman".

For those who are going to see the film, be warned that it contains very unpleasant scenes, but at the end of the day, it is a war film, and it doesn't hide the brutality of what combat entails. Otherwise, if you like war films, I highly recommend it. I thought it was an excellent film. Here's the trailer: