The Hurt Locker
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Year: 2009
Plot Summary: When renegade Sergeant James takes command of a highly trained bomb disposal unit, he frequently risks the lives of himself and those around him with his suicidal methods and a complete disregard to danger.
It's the season for film awards with the Golden Globe nominations announced this week and the Oscars looming closer and closer. Therefore, it's only appropriate to revisit last year's big winner: Kathryn Bigelow's war film The Hurt Locker.
Set during the Iraq war, we follow three men in a bomb disposal unit as they approach the end of their duty oversees. After their last leader is killed by a roadside bomb, Sergeant James takes over the unit and his two subordinates watch him descend further into an addiction to war.
The great thing about The Hurt Locker is that it puts aside all of the political issues that surround the Iraq war and instead focuses on the people who have had to suffer because of them. We’ve seen the government’s lies about weapons of mass destruction in films like Body Of Lies, we know the conspiracies for oil from Fahrenheit 9/11 and the financial gain of companies like Halliburton was documented in this year’s The Tillman Story. However, on only a few occasions has the film industry ever really put you in the shoes of the boys who have gone to war – regardless of the corruption and deceit that surrounds it – and allows you to see through their eyes.
In this respect, The Hurt Locker is a monumental success. The outstanding use of editing and cinematography puts you in the mind-set of these young soldiers who are put in such difficult situations. Ones in which they have to decide whether a man with a phone is a threat or a civilian in a split second, ones in which a single wrong step could mean the difference between life and death and ones in which every item could be a roadside bomb.
This also makes for intense and suspenseful viewing. With every episode of The Hurt Locker you will sit on the edge of your seat knowing the dangers that surround these characters. Moreover, the fact that one of the biggest actors in the film, Guy Pearce, is killed within the first five minutes helps to ramp up the tension as you realize that these missions are unforgiving and anyone could lose their life during them.
While it has an episodic structure, The Hurt Locker fantastically uses every segment to strengthen the characters and the theme of the movie: That war is a drug. As the days count down until the end of their duty, you begin to see more and more how characters like James, Sanborn and Eldridge can never go back to being ordinary people again after what they see in Iraq. After living on the edge for so long, how could they ever be expected to go back to their families and their quiet, suburban homes?
This is perfectly captured by the heartbreaking ending as we a hurtled back to James’ home and we witness him trying to live a normal life. A shot as he states at an entire aisle of cereal is one of the most powerful I’ve seen in contemporary cinema; showing a man so broken from war’s effects that, although he can make the choice between the red or green wire in a second, he doesn’t know where to start when it comes to everyday choices between one food brand and another.
Deserving of last year’s Oscar for Best Picture, The Hurt Locker is a nerve-shredding war drama that will leave you in awe.
5/5
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