Interviews by Elisa Leonelli
Warfare, written and directed by British screenwriter-director Alex Garland with Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza, describes in realistic detail how a platoon of American Navy SEALs conducted a surveillance mission gone wrong in Ramadi, Iraq in November 2006.
Other movies that had tackled similar episodes of the Iraq War are The Hurt Locker (2008) by Katherine Bigelow with Jeremy Renner, and American Sniper (2014) by Clint Eastwood with Bradley Cooper.
Warfare poster (c) A24
Q: Mr. Garland, what intrigued you about making Warfare, a movie about a real war, after working with Ray Mendoza, a former US Navy Seal in charge of staging combat scenes in your movie Civil War, which was about a fictional conflict?
Alex Garland: I liked working with Ray, who’s incredibly good at his job, benefiting from his input and contributions. So an idea grew out of Civil War, to take an hour and a half of real combat, and make it as true to life as possible, removing all sorts of cinematic filmmaking devices, like music or time compressions. It did not make sense for me to do this alone, because if the film is attempting to recreate accurately a sequence of events, you need somebody on set who has the answers to all the questions, particularly from the actors and the production designers. And that was Ray.
Q: Last year you said about Civil War that it was about a fascist president who smashed the Constitution and attacked citizens. That scenario resonates with the current political situation, after Donald Trump was re-elected as President. What do you see as the relevance today of a movie like Warfare about the Iraq war set in 2006 when George Bush was President?
Alex Garland: In a strange way it could have relevance to people watching it in the 16th or the 15th century, because the sequence of events and the nature of war are common to all times people are killing each other, or are afraid of working together against another group of people in a lethal way. It’s a commonality of war, it’s not specific to 2006 at all. I have worked for about 25 years in a film industry, that has a very long history of romanticizing war or distorting it. And there’s space for lots of different kinds of movies, you can have an entertaining war movie, but it’s also good sometimes to have an accurate, honest portrayal of war, because when we neglect to tell the truth about the nature of war, we’re making a huge mistake. Is it particularly relevant now? Yes, because we are closer to a large scale war right now than we have been for quite a long time.
Q: Mr. Mendoza. A large number of people around the world protested the US military invasion of Iraq in 2003. But once President Bush and the US congress approved it, Americans felt compelled to support the troops, even if they disagreed with that decision. Is that what you wished to convey with this movie?
Ray Mendoza: We made this film as a reminder to the people who make the decisions to go to war that there are people that will answer that call so that others don’t have to, and usually it’s the youth of America. We wanted to cast very young guys in their 20s and 30s, because that’s typically who’s fighting these wars. Our film is not only an immersive experience of warfare, but also a bridge to communication about the subject of combat. I think audiences should use it to educate themselves, to learn about the culture of war, what is happening, what the ripple effects are, and the baggage we have to carry after. I see Warfare as a conversation starter on that subject.
Cosmos Jarvis, a British actor, 34, acted in Persuasion with Dakota Johnson, The Alto Knights with Robert De Niro, the TV series Shogun.
Q: Mr. Jarvis, Ray Mendoza said that he made Warfare for Elliot Miller, because, after being severely injured, he doesn’t recall what happened that day in 2006, so his goal was to collect all the memories of his fellow SEALs on that mission. Did you speak with the real Elliot, that you portray in the film? How would you describe what happened to him?
Cosmos Jarvis: Elliot is a specialty sniper and a medic for the group of Navy SEAL that come under attack. And that’s all I can say. It’s difficult to talk about what happens to him without spoilers. I met Elliot, he was with us for a good portion of the shoot, and he stayed in the same place that we all stayed. Although he can’t remember what happened, it was great that he was present to contribute and support the effort that we were all undertaking.
Q: How did you build that feeling of brotherhood, that is typical of military units in combat situations, during the training and preparation for the film?
Cosmos Jarvis: It was not something that was consciously pursued, it naturally came about from the larger training that Ray was putting us through, because most of us were laymen in regard to any militaristic knowledge. So being all united by having this novel experience intrinsically brought us together, and also the training often consisted of being required to complete an objective as a group, whether it had to do with weapon safety, or weapons training, or room clearance, all of these kinds of tasks.
Q: What do think the movie is trying to says about war?
Cosmos Jarvis: Our movie is about a very specific event that happened in 2006 in Ramadi, and I know that it’s very easy for that to open up a multitude of different philosophical and political conversations about the nature of war and the mechanisms which bring it about. But our only concern was to accurately depict something that happened, in utter isolation, without any need to explore the surrounding context, because it just was not relevant to what happened.
Q. What do you wish audiences to learn about the reality of war from watching Warfare?
Cosmos Jarvis: I just hope that it’s witnessed by people for what it is, because I know that the intention behind it was a very simple one, it was uncompromising and had a tangible purpose for its existence. it was done exactly how Ray and Alex always said that they set out to make, what it was at its original inception. So I actually couldn’t give a damn about what it conveys. I’m glad that they were able to make it and I hope people witness it, and if they want to form their own thoughts afterwards, they can do that.
Kit Connor © Murray Close-A24.
Kit Connor, a British actor, 21 played a young Elton John in Rocketman with Taron Edgerton, a teenage rugby player in the TV series Heartstopper, Romeo with Rachel Zegler as Juliet in the Shakespeare play on Broadway.
Q: Mr. Connor. We see you and all the US Navy SEALS wearing bulletproof vests, carrying very heavy weapons and other gear. What kind of military training did you receive to learn how to use that equipment?
Kit Connor: We did about three and a half weeks of training, with Ray as our main trainer, and that consisted of firearms training, tactical training, physical strength training, and training in the type of vernacular that we had to start using. My character is a gunner, which means that he carries a big weapon called a Mark 48 machine gun, which is about three times the weight of the M4 carbine assault rifle that the other guys were using. So the training required a certain skill set that we specialized in, according to our different fields that we would explore in the film.
Q: How do you feel about the opening scene of Warfare where the entire platoon of Navy SEALs watches the 2004 music video of “Call On Me” by Eric Prydz?
Kit Connor: I didn’t find it upsetting, because, even though I’m a queer man, I am also am playing a character. And we had been told by the men who were in Iraq that they used to do this before they would go out on every mission. Sure, there is definitely a lot of testosterone in the room, it’s rowdy, messy and chaotic, but when you talk to these men, about the significance of that song is that they found it very moving, because they never knew if it was going to be the last time that they would ever see a woman. It was just something that they did as a ritual, because every time that they went out, they might die during that mission. And some people might find it a bit shocking or offensive, but it’s a portrayal of exactly what happened.
Warfare © Murray Close-A24
Q: Did Ray explain to you why he chose to sign up for the US Navy SEALS as a career, and whether he has since regretted that decision?
Kit Connor: Ray said something very interesting to me, along the lines that war is inherently a negative thing and not something that he enjoyed. I’m sure there were parts of it that he enjoyed, like the camaraderie, but he said that he would do it again so that his daughter or his son don’t have to go to fight a war. It’s an interesting conversation in terms of why people join the military, but this film isn’t a comment on that, it’s a portrayal of the facts from these men’s memories, an authentic presentation of what really happened, just trying to pursue the truth.
Q: What do you hope to communicate to young people of today about the true face of war with this film?
Kit Connor: Our goal was to try and present the facts and then the audience can perceive it however way they want to. It’s not a commentary on any war in particular, but on war as a whole, the consequences of war for everyone involved. So I hope that people watch it and feel immersed in it, because that was our inherent goal, it doesn’t try to manipulate you into feeling any type of way. If you look at my character, Tommy, who had just turned 21 at the time, I imagined what that was like when I was reading the script, thinking that I would never want to be in that situation. And I spoke to a lot of people who have kids my age and they said that watching the film made them terrified at the thought of their kid being in that situation.
Published in the August issue of Best Movie, Italy
