Imagine this, it’s 1940 at the start of the second world war, and you see a poster of a caricatured Nazi running at a poor woman with a knife in hand. Would this make you want to fight? Well, you wouldn’t really have a choice. With the military draft for World War II, nearly 10 million American men were forced to fight. Now, imagine you’re fresh out of high school in 2003 with no idea what you want to do with your life. You see an advertisement about the benefits of joining the military and decide to enlist.
Fast forward a few months, it’s the middle of the night and you get ordered to break into an unsuspecting Iraqi family’s home, break down the walls, and hold the family captive. Later, your platoon is ordered to move on, either out of danger or victory, leaving a desolate, crumbled home behind, and the innocent family with nowhere safe to live.
This is what the Iraq War was all about. Commonly known as the “Propaganda War,” the U.S. military, along with forces from the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland invaded Iraq on suspicion of weapons of mass destruction. As the most controversial war in history, the Iraq War did not have a draft, soldiers volunteered to be there, unlike WWII, where many would live in fear of being chosen.
Numerous American films depict the hardships endured by U.S. soldiers during this war, most of the time showing them in a heroic light. The main problem with this is that many label it as propaganda, and technically, it is.
On April 11, “Warfare” was released in theaters, starring D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Joseph Quinn, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, and more. “Warfare” follows a platoon of Navy Seals in Iraq during 2006 whose surveillance mission goes wrong.
What’s different about this film compared to other Iraq War films is that it doesn’t filter out anything. Nothing about this movie was political. Everyone knows what happened in the Iraq War. However, this movie was nowhere near touching the controversy behind that.
“Warfare” was simply a retelling of a true story about soldiers in the war. There was no glorification of the atrocities committed. It was brutal, graphic, emotional, and so very intense. Nothing was shielded about how U.S. soldiers took over homes, no sides were taken, there wasn’t one discussion about why the soldiers were there and what they were doing, it was simply an amazing movie made for entertainment purposes.
Seeing this movie in theaters was an experience I don’t think I’ll ever forget. The shock, fear, and all other emotions I felt were the things that made “Warfare” an incredible experience for me and any viewer.
