The Power of Hair in Cinema: A Review of WARFARE

A recently unearthed hobby my friends pointed out is that, although I can’t handle a series that only “gets good” after four episodes, I somehow manage to watch around three movies a week, both old and new. So maybe that does make me a bit of a movie buff?

Something I find really interesting is how hair plays a role in building a character–how it evolves throughout a film and tells its own story.

A film I watched recently (and highly recommend) is WARFARE, a 2025 war film directed by Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza. It focuses on a harrowing Navy SEAL mission during the Iraq War.

Since it’s a minute-by-minute retelling of a true story, the actors had to fully embody the real people they were portraying. That meant lots of cropped cuts and tight shaves. Not only was this essential for the Navy SEAL uniform, but it also stripped away any preconceived notions we might’ve had about the actors and emphasized the sense that they were equals–part of the same team. Any trace of a “pretty boy” red carpet aesthetic was gone, which made it easier to focus on the raw vulnerability of their characters to show every flicker of concern/terror on their faces.

10/10 would reccomend