SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
You may never quite know what this strategic objective is supposed to be when a platoon of U.S. Navy SEALs bursts into a split-level house in the middle of the night in a town in Iraq where insurgents might be on the roof and roofs next door, and that might be the point. They herd the Iraqi family into a bedroom. They try to scope out a potential insurgent, but then militants attack. The Navy SEALs are surrounded and need support fast.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WARFARE")
D'PHARAOH WOON-A-TAI: (As Ray) Jake, this is one. Collapse to us now.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) All right (ph). But where are you guys?
WOON-A-TAI: (As Ray) We're - ah - look for the blood and the smoke.
SIMON: It's the film "Warfare," based on the experiences of Ray Mendoza, who served in Iraq. He wrote and directed the film alongside Alex Garland, whose movies include "Civil War" and "Ex Machina." Ray Mendoza joins us now. Mr. Mendoza, thanks so much for being with us.
RAY MENDOZA: Thank you for having me.
SIMON: So this is based on an actual mission you were on in Ramadi. What happened?
MENDOZA: Counterinsurgency was the focus at the time. Ramadi was considered kind of the hotbed of the insurgency. And the goal was to go in and to take back Ramadi sector by sector. And we were to provide overwatch for those missions.
SIMON: Can I ask you about the very beginning of the film? I was surprised by it.
MENDOZA: Yeah, which part - with the music video?
SIMON: Exactly. The...
MENDOZA: Yeah.
SIMON: ...2004 dance hit, "Call On Me," Eric Prydz.
MENDOZA: Yeah, there's a few purposes that served. One of them being that the film is based off of memories, and if it didn't happen on that day, it wasn't going to be in the film. And so, in 2006, you know, there wasn't a lot of - you know, you can't stream movies or content like you can now. And in a place like Iraq, where a lot of times you have to entertain yourself, you know, videos get passed around via USB drives, and this is one of many videos. But this one just caused us to be - it was just fun. Obviously, there's some beautiful women in it. There's a guy in there. You know, it's a bit comedic.
And so, yeah, it was just something that stuck with us. And then we started watching it more and more until it became a kind of a ritual to watch before we went out. And then also, just to show how young we were and how silly we were, just kind of these young men doing what young men do when left to their own devices.
SIMON: That's what kind of got to me about it because we meet the platoon in their combat gear. You can't tell how young they are, but you sure can tell how young they are when they're dancing along to this video.
MENDOZA: Correct. They're having fun, and it's just a way, you know - when you watch the movie, there's not a lot of narrative. You don't get the traditional dialogue you see in other movies to help you understand who the character is and their relationships amongst each other. So I think this is a cool snapshot of just kind of who they were.
SIMON: You had to watch all this in the actual mission. Was it hard to relive it, making a film?
MENDOZA: Yeah. I mean, it's been hard just living with it rather than reliving it. This was just one day of many days, but obviously, one of the more tragic days for me in my personal life, being that one of them was Elliott Miller - played by Cosmo Jarvis - was a friend of mine - one of my best friends. Reliving it, I don't think it was as hard as coming out of the military, understanding it, just transitioning into civilian world, figuring out what I wanted to do - some of those mechanisms we create to function every day when you see tragedy on that scale.
The most common mechanism amongst people who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan is just to kind of push it down. And then it's something you think you're going to be able to talk about it with your friends later on. But you never do 'cause when we come back, we go back to our hometowns, or we go to different commands, or, you know, we get out of the military. You never get to talk about the emotional components. Doing this together, I think it was very therapeutic for a lot of us and mended a lot of relationships. Then ultimately, the reason why we did it was for Elliott. He lacks that core memory. He doesn't recall what happened. So I think coming together to recreate this for him was a great gift for all of us.
SIMON: I have to ask. You feel for the losses of the Navy SEALs, but I certainly found myself also thinking of the Iraqi family.
MENDOZA: Sure.
SIMON: Innocents shoved into the back bedroom in the middle of the night. Their walls are shot out, and people die. Do you think of them?
MENDOZA: Yeah. Of course, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, they're, I guess, the neutral party. We recognize who they are. But, you know, war is not so black-and-white sometimes. You know, when you're dealing with an insurgency, which is an enemy that is not uniformed, and there's decisions we have to make, which I think maybe get glossed over or maybe not reported on as much, which is, you know, we're put in these positions to make decisions, sometimes in microseconds, and there's a lot of information you need to process. But I wanted to show that there is that component, which does make it confusing for the soldier as well, not just the family.
SIMON: The film is so realistic - the combat, the camaraderie. What do you want people who haven't been through it to understand about the people you know?
MENDOZA: My focus wasn't on, like, this is what I want civilians to know. I made it for veterans to show that you're not forgotten. And I want to convey accurately what we all went through. This is just one event of thousands. What I would want civilians to take away from this is to understand when people say, thank you for your service, like, do they really know what they're thanking us for - the sacrifice and what that means? What are you sacrificing? And for me, it's sacrificing your youth. You're forced to grow up really fast.
SIMON: Can I ask, how are you and your friends doing now?
MENDOZA: Yeah. I mean, most of them are great. You know, I think there's some that have fallen through the cracks, unfortunately. But yeah, most of them are well. The ones, at least, involved in this are doing great. Elliott has two beautiful children, beautiful wife. And yeah, so a lot of guys have gotten out. They're doing great things. They're productive members of society.
SIMON: Writer and director Ray Mendoza. His new film, "Warfare," in theaters next week. Thanks so much for being with us, sir.
MENDOZA: Thank you, sir. Thanks for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF NATHAN BOWLES TRIO'S "OUR AIR") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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