On the latest episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo welcomes filmmaker Alex Garland and retired Navy SEAL-turned-director Ray Mendoza to discuss their latest co-directed collaboration, ‘Warfare’—a harrowing and unflinching war film based on Mendoza’s own real-life experiences in Iraq. The film stars Will Poulter, Joseph Quinn, Cosmo Jarvis, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Kit Connor, and Finn Bennett as members of a Navy SEAL unit plunged into a brutal, immersive firefight [read our review here].
Set across one intense battle, the film throws audiences into the boots of a SEAL team locked in combat. It’s stripped of cinematic sheen, raw in emotion, and deeply grounded in the lived experience of soldiers in the field. While Garland’s previous film, ‘Civil War,’ used speculative fiction to examine the horrors of conflict, ‘Warfare’ pulls from memory, reality, and lived trauma. No plot, just tense, all-out war.
“The idea was to avoid the usual cinematic representations of war,” Garland said. “For me, the main thing was to spend as much time listening to Ray and listening to his colleagues…and just be primarily receptive to that as opposed to other sorts of influences.”
For Mendoza, the goal was to make sure the actors not only captured the physicality but also the bond between soldiers. He leaned into his background as an instructor to forge the cast into a real unit.
“I know how to make a cohesive unit,” Mendoza explained. “You give people responsibility, ownership, and they start to care. When you spend that much time together—under stress, tired, hungry—you see it. You don’t have to force anything.”
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The cast of young actors was put through a multi-week boot camp and encouraged to support each other both on and off screen. “They weren’t going back to trailers,” Mendoza said. “They were doing quartets in the corner, throwing rocks at cans—just mundane shit. That’s what soldiers do. And it all translated to the film.”
Garland emphasized the unique nature of their working relationship, calling Mendoza an essential part of the creative process from day one. “It was immediately something we could only do together,” Garland said. “Often directors are answering questions from actors or designers about a character or moment. In this case, the person with the answers wasn’t me—it was Ray.”
Spoiler alert: there are no flag-waving, slow-motion hero shots here – no forlorn wives pining at home with an infant. Instead, Garland and Mendoza depict war as a confusing, disorienting, and emotionally draining experience. The action is captured in long, unbroken takes that force viewers to sit in the moment with the characters. The result is a film that strips away politics and sentimentality, offering something more experiential than ideological.
Garland even addressed criticism over his refusal to take overt political stances in his recent work, particularly “Civil War,” which divided fans for not providing more information or taking a stance in a more pointed political fashion.
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“It used to be the case that you had to smuggle things past studios. The studios felt that they were the gatekeepers of what audiences could or could not understand. The sort of gatekeeping aspect of that has migrated away from studios to other quarters,” Garland said. “They’re basically saying, ‘I think people are too dumb to figure this out.’ It’s incredibly patronizing. We present something, and believe we’re offering it up to adults. They can figure out what they think.”
Despite being co-director here, Garland has hinted at stepping back from directing after this. And while many were hoping that feeling would pass, it seems Garland is sticking to his guns.“Yeah, sure [I’m still taking a break]. In this, Ray was occupying the space in communicating with actors and designers, which I would have normally been doing,” Garland shared. “So that was a significant step back for me… and I also did some writing.”
Oh, yes – that small indie Zombie film that no horror fans are salivating over. Garland recently penned scripts for Danny Boyle and Nia DaCosta, the upcoming sequel entries in the “28 Days Later” universe. This came as a surprise for some as Boyle and Garland had supposedly decided not to work together anymore after their last collaboration.
“It was this,” Garland said of returning to the franchise and working with Boyle. “’28 Days Later’ was a very uncynical film. It had a punk sensibility. And in order to make a follow-up to it, you couldn’t be in a cynical mindset. There’s various reasons why that wouldn’t have worked. And enough time had passed [with us]. There was a key idea that felt tonally correct to what we did 20-something years ago.”
As for the already announced third entry, Garland said he’s only written scripts for the first two films in the trilogy but didn’t confirm if he’ll be onboard for the third.
Mendoza, meanwhile, hinted at exploring the aftermath of service in future projects: “There are some post-service ideas I want to tell. What happens after warfare.”
The Playlist Presents: Alex Garland & Ray Mendoza’s Film/TV Recommendation Playlist:
- ‘The Frogmen’ (1951)
- ’28 Days Later’ (2002)
- ‘Civil War’ (2024)
‘Warfare’ hits theaters on April 11.
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