A new film set during the Civil War, “The Damned” lands on a conundrum facing many war movies: how to depict soldiers and combat without glorifying death and destruction. Predominantly peaceful but tense, the film lays out a contemplative treatise on how to approach warfare in theory and in action, with the concept of manhood a crucial question. 

While director Roberto Minervini ultimately doesn’t provide any definitive answers, he paints an absorbing, unglamorous picture of men seeking meaning in the midst of conflict.

Following a volunteer unit of the Union army somewhere in the American West, the first 30 minutes of the hour-and-a-half film introduces us to various soldiers, none of whom can be said to be lead characters. One, though, played by actor Jeremiah Knupp (there are no names to the roles), stands out as he instructs others on how to use a shotgun and keep watch around camp in a hills-and-plains terrain. The ragtag troop consists of the young, the middle-aged, and the time-toughened; the sergeant is a long-bearded elder with two teenage sons.  

As the dialogue is mostly improvised, the Italian-born Mr. Minervini has said that he chose his cast members not only for their acting skills but for their “intellectual abilities.” Members of the National Guard from Helena, Montana, are mixed in with visual artists and writers, all of whom were familiar with or conducted research on the era’s history and the lives of servicemen in mid-19th century America. This gives the proceedings the feel of a Civil War reenactment, yet it also adds an element of detailing and a tentative, hardscrabble camaraderie that goes a long way toward creating a believable atmosphere. 

Another factor lending the film a certain veracity is its cinematography: Vintage lenses are used to focus on characters positioned centrally and close to the camera, with other figures and visual elements on the periphery a bit blurred and darkened. While the location shooting contains moments of beauty, the muted photography is not out to impress the viewer with its grandeur, instead tying the landscapes to a character or an action.  

The first hint of a plot — that a skirmish with Confederate forces is imminent and that the unit must hold out for two weeks until reinforcements can travel from New Mexico — arrives while several troops are playing cards. When this confrontation occurs, it’s properly chaotic, leaving viewers unsure of who has been shot or the locations of the aggressors. One indelible image involves a bald-headed soldier crouching into a hollow near a tree: He could be playing dead, resting, and/or protecting himself from the bullets and the cold.

One wishes Mr. Minervini had placed as much emphasis on narrative clarity as he does on immersive scene setting. Still, as four soldiers discuss slavery, righteousness, a steady paycheck, and ennui — essentially their reasons for joining up — we come to know them better and hope for their survival. One actor in particular stands out: Noah Carlson as one of the sergeant’s sons. With his slightly lispy speech and tangle of blond hair, he embodies the youthful, earnest, and religious soldier with such casual conviction that it’s heartbreaking when we start to see him crack under the pressure of hopelessness, an unforgiving landscape, and physical hardship.

We never get to see what ends up happening to Noah’s character, though the film seems to make a connection between the young man and a tethered, abandoned, and freezing horse. Mr. Minervini also turns away from any sort of climax to his story, sidestepping a potential second clash as the movie comes to a conclusion in favor of a nearly uplifting ending reminiscent of Terrence Malick’s work. While it’s a strange coda for “The Damned,” it’s another example of how the director avoided making yet another war movie featuring “thrilling” battle sequences, clear outcomes, and conclusive morality.