The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker (2008)

This film from Kathryn 'don't call me James Cameron's ex' Bigelow (Point Break) is the most intense war movie seen since Saving Private Ryan, but for so many different reasons.

Whereas SPR had plenty of Spielberg's 'mates' onboard dropping dimes into his Yarmulke affording him the ability to stage the haunting events of D-Day, this film succeeds for exactly the opposite reason.

Made on a budget of only $11 million and shot just a few kilometres from the Iraq border in neighbouring Jordan, it is expertly shot, directed and edited throwing the viewer head first into the action witnessed by the small group of protagonists. This is a raw and intense exercise in film making.

From the opening scene the viewer is thrust into the eyes of an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) unit stationed in Baghdad. They are forced to overcome internal disunity, worries back home and the ever present threat of the often hostile Baghdad natives all the while trying to simply finish their tour.

Jeremy Renner (the bad guy from SWAT, I think) is excellent in the lead role, he doesn't look like your convential leading man which helps his performance immensely. I mean, would it be credible if we were forced to believe that someone who looked like Brad Pitt would be defusing road side bombs in Iraq?

What this film does that so few are able to is to get the audience to feel what the characters feel. This is accomplished by showing each of them in many different situations (from combat scenes & roadside detonations to drinkin' & family life) throughout the course of the story thus creating a level of complexity rarely seen and the raw atmosphere that is created by Bigelow, which one has to think is attributable to the low budget and shooting on (near) location.

9/10

willo