I had been eager to see The Hurt Locker for a few months now and finally got the chance to on Saturady night, and it was better than I thought it would be. I've actually spent the past few days trying to think of an eloquent and concise way to write a review that does this marvelous movie justice, without giving too much away, but still aren't too sure of how, & apparently I'm not the only one who's had some difficulty.
One of the reasons I've had some trouble is because I'm still trying to process and digest everything that happened. There's no opening credit sequence or even a title card, the movie just begins with a quote from from former New York Times Iraq expert Christopher Hedges that says, "...War is a drug," & we encounter a U.S. Army bomb disposal unit made up of 3 guys - an intelligence officer, the specialist who covers the scene with his rifle and the staff sergeant who walks up to the device and tries to defuse it, in an incredibly uncomfortable-looking heavily insulated "space suit," so you are immediately thrust into a real scenario you would never think about. We're informed that these men have 45 days left on their rotation and you soon realize that one of them is probably not going to make it through the next few weeks let alone,to the end of the day. Soon after that realization the spaceman, gets caught in the "kill zone" as the bomb is detonated (it even looks like he's being detonated) and is soon replaced by Sgt James, played with subtle bravado and tender gravitas by Jeremy Renner. A sort of modern cowboy who's sanity you question, as you witness his calm, controlled yet chaotic approach to the harrowing task he's incredibly good at (he's defused 847 bombs so far.) I have to quote from the TIME Magazine review of this film from November while referring to Renner because I'm a bit biased (I've been hoping this guy would be huge since S.W.A.T & Dahmer):
It's a creepy marvel to watch James in action. He has the cool aplomb, analytical acumen and attention to detail of a great athlete, or a master psychopath, maybe both. A quote Movies often editorialize on this theme: the man who's a misfit back home but an efficient, imaginative killing machine on the battlefield. Bigelow and Boal aren't after that. They're saying that, in a hellish peace-keeping operation like the U.S. deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan (James' previous assignment), the Army needs guys like James.
Directed by the bold and beautiful Kathryn Bigelow (who also directed the ultimate surfer heist movie Point Break and the ultimate Y2K thriller Strange Days) this movie had me on the edge of my seat, as I eagerly waited to find out what would happen next. As a girl who goes gaga for war flicks (I was up way past my bedtime watching Saving Private Ryan the night after I saw THL) this movie is the tops, it made me want to watch Generation Kill & Jarhead just to appreciate the subtle nuances and profound relevancy of the wars the US Government has fought and is fighting in the Middle East. It was riveting, exhilirating and gets under your skin when you least expect it, to the point where while standing in the cereal aisle at the supermarket the next day, I appreciated this movie and people like Sgt. James so much more.
My rating: 9.9/10
Here's part of the opening sequence thanks to Film School Rejects.
