The Hurt Locker

Tagline: You'll know when you're in it.

So, I saw this movie also as a part of my dedicated Oscar’s week of the films nominated for best picture, although I did attempt to watch this months earlier and fell asleep in the first few scenes of the movie. After that, I really had no desire to finish this movie. It has however been creating some serious buzz and racked up numerous awards at the BAFTAs earlier this year. This movie is also potentially the vehicle to bring us our first female director to win an Oscar for best director, who is also the ex-wife of James Cameron, whose picture is also nominated.







This movie follows an elite bomb squad and it’s team leader William James, played by Jeremy Renner, during a rotation in war-torn Iraq. During the course of the movie, the team goes on several different missions as the first responders to evaluate and disarm numerous suspected bombs of all sorts of fashion.






The plot definitely had a bit of a drag in the beginning. Honestly if this wasn’t a part of my Oscar week, I don’t think I would’ve attempted it again as my first attempt did such a great job of putting me right to sleep. I will say that the ‘plot’ picks up in the latter half of the movie. I say ‘plot’ because there was no real story line and more of a sequence of events. I actually enjoyed this plot as it felt real. This movie had an almost documentary type feel to it but nothing like a mockumentary. It felt as if we were truly just following this bomb battalion during their normal duties while on rotation in Iraq. The plot didn’t have an agenda or a message about war, it was simply just about war. I imagine this is how life feels to a soldier over there; no political agendas or huge conspiracies, simply a job that must be done.






The camera work fit perfectly with the feel of the movie, with up close hand held film cameras. It really felt like we were watching raw footage from the field. The editing was excellent and well thought out. There were close up shots and unique camera angles thrown in there which really kept the balance of the different filming styles and reminded us that we were watching a movie and not live footage from Iraq. The sound editing was amazing, like most of the best war movies are. A war movie really relies heavily on the realistic sound and this one had it. It wasn’t anything ground-breaking but it was on par with other great war movies. The movie used the different camera styles and great balanced editing to provide us with something more than the run of the mill war movie where the camera just follows the action where it goes.






The performances were good and believable. This was an action driven movie and we weren’t given much character development, with the slight exception of Renner’s character. There was several short supporting characters played by Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, and David Morse. Jeremy Renner did great with his character and everyone made their characters unique instead of playing the generic soldier-type. Everybody was believable and as the movie was mainly centered around the action/plot, there really isn’t much more to say.






The movie didn’t really have a normal storyline with an exposition, rising/falling action, and conclusion. It was more of a deep look into the life of a bomb squad in modern day Iraq. It left the viewer to draw our own opinions, without any political overtones or propagandic agendas. It was unique from most other war movies in which a centralized storyline develops however war is not really like that and therefore this movie felt like a much better account of real life. The film was made on location in Jordan which just gives such credibility to the movie and all of the crew that worked on it. I understand why this film is being revered for its uniqueness and credibility but I’m not sure if I really see where the best picture nomination came from. I think the people who really will enjoy this film, will be very narrow. I think it will be a great iconic movie for future generations which captured the feel of this war or as James Cameron said it, ‘the Platoon of the Iraq War’. I would really only recommend this to war movie fans who will enjoy a raw dirty look of modern day warfare. This movie is obviously not for everyone and I believe those who don’t enjoy this type of movie, will find it boring and hard to follow.