Since the initial announcement of the film, A24’s latest production,Warfare, has seemed like a unique collaboration between a seasoned director and a war veteran. Ryan Mendoza, a technical advisor on several movies and television shows and most recently Alex Garland’sCivil War, is making his directorial debut withWarfare. Garland shares a directing credit with Mendoza, though theEx MachinaDirector was sure to clarify that he’s taking a backseat in this film’s production.
In an interview withEntertainment Weekly, Garland and Mendoza took a deep dive into the creative process of the film and how it came to fruition.Warfarecame about when structuring the action-packed climax ofCivil War, which Garland wanted to portray in “real-time.” It was from consultation on this scene thatWarfarewas born, as Garland would say:
“There was a particular section towards the end ofCivil Warin a corridor where we shot it and edited it to be in real-time. So I approached Ray and asked if he had a story or true-life event that he would be interested in telling in real-time. We started talking about this film, which is something that Ray, unbeknownst to me, had been wanting to make for a long, long time. My role then was just to facilitate Ray telling this story that he already wanted to tell.”
‘Warfare’ Is A Natural Continuation of Alex Garland & Ray Mendoza’s Work on ‘Civil War’
From how Garland describes the collaboration,Warfarealmost feels like a reversal of roles after Mendoza’s insights and consultation on the action sequences of theCivil War. Just fromthe first trailer for the film released earlier this week, the movie feels like the action sequences inCivil Warstretched out into an entire feature film. It’s more than just a retelling of Mendoza’s time in Iraq, though—it’s also meant to help a vet who lived through the experience remember what happened.
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Ray Mendoza provided more context for the film, telling EW that part of the reason for the film was to help someone who survived the experience recall what happened to them, saying:
“The story is not solely about me. I was one of the guys there, and some of it is being told from my perspective initially, but one of the guys named Elliot got severely wounded upon extraction. He’s had some [traumatic brain injury] issues and extremely bad damage to his extremities. He’s in a wheelchair, and he doesn’t recall what happened. We’ve tried to write it out for him in literary form, but even that’s really confusing. I think he understood what happened, but for us who were there and remember it, we have visual memories of it. He’s lacking that, and I’ve always wanted to do that for him. I felt it would be easier for him to watch something than to read 12 individuals’ differing perspectives on it.”
Warfarelooks to be a therapeutic experience for the creatives involved, while also serving as a stark reminder to viewers ofthe needless violence and tragedy that the title represents. It’s clear that Garland cares about Mendoza’s vision, and hopefully, the medium of film will help the real-life veteran recall what he was able to survive.
Written and directed by Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland (Civil War,28 Days Later),Warfareembeds audiences with a platoon of American Navy SEALs in the home of an Iraqi family, overwatching the movement of US forces through insurgent territory. A visceral, boots-on-the-ground story of modern warfare, told like never before: in real time and based on the memory of the people who lived it.
