It was strange, but it's not a spoiler to say this film is based on a true story or based on the memories of the writer and co-director of this film, Ray Mendoza, a soldier who fought and served in the Iraq War. It's also not much of a spoiler to say that, at the end, a series of photographs appear on screen. Those photographs are the actors in costume side-by-side with their real-life counterparts, aka Mendoza's fellow soldiers. Yet, for most of them, the faces of the real-life soldiers are blurred. Either the real-life men didn't want their faces shown or their faces couldn't be shown for legal or even classified reasons. Either way, the blurring of the faces became a metaphor for the film. These men as depicted are themselves blurred depictions, meaning we don't see them or get to know them in any significant or deeper way. They're not humans. They're just action figures. Therefore, it's hard for me to connect and humanize them, if we don't get to know them in some way beyond the superficial and the operational.
Director Alex Garland (Annihilation and Ex Machina) takes us to November, 2006, during an incident in Ramadi, as part of the Iraq War. He centers the film on a group of Navy SEALs who have a mission where they have to sneak into someone's house and hide there, as they provide surveillance and support, ultimately trying to find and kill insurgents. Unfortunately, they are quickly discovered and are attacked while in this house. The soldiers become trapped in that house and have to defend themselves. Some get injured but they have to wait for what's called a "Cas Evac" or a casualty evacuation.
D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, an Emmy-nominee for Reservation Dogs (2021) stars as Ray Mendoza, a young soldier whose main responsibility is communicating by radio or satellite to higher command or other units. That's his operational function. Beyond that, we learn nothing more about Ray. I don't think we even hear anybody call him by his actual name. We certainly don't get where he's from or how old he is or how many tours he's done. Nothing! We get nothing, which is the case for all the soldiers here. We get perhaps their operational function or their role within this unit, but that's it.
Fellow Emmy nominee, Will Poulter (The Bear and Dopesick) co-stars as Erik, the officer in charge or the leader of this unit. Cosmo Jarvis (Shogun and Annihilation) plays Elliot, a sniper in the unit. Taylor John Smith (Where the Crawdads Sing and The Outpost) plays Frank, another sniper. Kit Connor (The Wild Robot and Heartstopper) plays Tommy, a gunner and new soldier in the unit. Joseph Quinn (Gladiator II and A Quiet Place: Day One) plays Sam, an officer who is one of the seriously injured. There's a lot of other actors that get introduced but like the aforementioned photos, they're simply action figures with metaphorically blurred faces, meaning we don't dig any deeper or really get to know who they are.
Charles Melton (May December and Bad Boys for Life) also co-stars as Jake, the officer in charge who takes over for Erik. One might think that his taking over might be the source of dramatic tension here, but it's not. He simply becomes the one barking orders of how the Cas Evac is going to occur. As a matter of how the Cas Evac goes down and how it's carried out in a situation like the one in this film, Garland walks us through the step-by-step procedure, which requires a lot of patience and waiting. One would think, Garland would fill that waiting with characterization or backstory, but often the film fills that waiting with silence or the screams, either muffled or full volume, of the injured men.
Seeing a Cas Evac be depicted could be interesting in and of itself. Obviously, for the men involved, it was a terrifying and heartrending experience, especially since it involved watching fellow soldiers suffer and bear through tremendous pain, as they wait for that rescue. How they defend themselves and the house could be thrilling in and of itself. However, because Garland and his co-author, Mendoza, give us nothing more to the men, who they are or why we should care about them beyond this moment, they remain nothing more than action figures or chess pieces moved or dragged about. Yes, we care about them on a basic human level, but if your spouse asked you why you cared about him or her and the only response is that you only care about your spouse on a basic human level, would that response be one of true love? I care about any soldier or person who puts their life on the line for another, but if I'm watching a film or being a told a story, I want to fall in love with the characters or be truly pulled in by them. That's not the case here. This film becomes more about procedure than pathos.
That being said, if this film was all about procedure and nothing else, that would have been fine, if this film had something more to say, either about the procedure or the mission or the war in general. There is a suggestion that in order to get rescue, the soldiers might have to do some dishonest things or manipulation, but that's rather brushed over. There is also a suggestion that one or both of the snipers don't want to take certain shots, but that's also brushed over. My hope was that any of those things would have led to some commentary about the Iraq War as a whole. Like the Vietnam War, the Iraq War was a highly unnecessary conflict, based on lies, and that painted a picture that all Iraqis are evil, which maybe the sniper thing hinted.
While the soldiers wait for evacuation, there is an Iraqi family who is basically held hostage in their own house. Garland makes them rather faceless and voiceless, which is a shame. Even if we get nothing deeper from the soldiers, there was an opportunity for Garland to do something with this family. We learn absolutely nothing about them. We don't even get anything about why that house in particular was chosen. It's just a very hollow narrative and story.
Rated R for intense war violence, bloody, grisly images and language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 35 mins.
In theaters.