The Hurt Locker

Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker contains countless moments of unbearable suspense, yet it somehow still manages to tell a delicate and lyrical tale about war and the people who participate in acts of war. Bigelow doesn’t cut corners and doesn’t pull punches, constructing what is sure to be one of the best motion pictures of the year and the best movie I’ve seen in a long time.

Mark Boal, the freelance writer who wrote the short story that inspired the brilliant In the Valley of Elah, wrote the script. Having spent time embedded with a bomb squad, Boal knows his stuff and it shows on screen and in the words these men choose. The movie was shot in Jordan over the course of 44 days from July to September 2007. The actors trained with real life counterparts where possible, ensuring authenticity.

While The Hurt Locker’s technical accuracy certainly helps build layers of intensity, it’s the characters that really drive it home. Jeremy Renner is Staff Sgt. William James. He is serving in Iraq and he defuses bombs. We first meet James when he’s called in to replace the recently deceased team leader of the U.S. Army EOD unit. James knows his stuff and is a little on the cocky side, driving his support team nuts.

Sgt. J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) is the head of James’ support team and he follows his leader everywhere with cover fire and protection. Sanborn is a by-the-book pro and he doesn’t much care for James’ reckless ways. This develops some interesting situations, as James almost has a tendency to deliberately incite trouble. Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) is a rookie and he spends the majority of his time in Iraq scared shitless (rightly so) but endlessly supportive.

The Hurt Locker puts these characters in the middle of Iraq and lets them loose. There’s no particular cohesive plot beyond survival. There’s no one single mission that trumps everything else and Bigelow and Boal don’t generate a whole slew of perplexing intricacies to lose the audience. Instead, they keep it simple and the movie is the better for it. It works because of the natural tension of situation after situation after situation. It works because we care.

We care about Renner, Mackie and the rest of the cast do a tremendous job sucking us right in to the centre of Iraq. They are feeling the heat, the sand, the dehydration, the concern, the anxiousness, and the terror. Shot in locations sometimes mere miles away from the Iraqi border, The Hurt Locker’s realism is without question. That Renner and the rest of the cast manage to act at all is astounding in and of itself. That they act so damn well is astonishing.

The movie also works because Bigelow takes her time constructing scenes. This is no music video war film; the camera does not move haphazardly and cinematographer Barry Ackroyd delivers some truly awe-inspiring visuals. The use of slow-motion and close-up photography is also worth noting, especially during an early sequence in which the power of an explosive device is explored in almost excruciating detail.

The Hurt Locker is every bit the masterpiece the critics are saying it is. Flawlessly executed and relentlessly engrossing, it is the best movie about the Iraq war and one of the best movies about war period. Bigelow’s rendering of a story that makes war an addiction rather than a cause couched in patriotism or morality is exhilarating from the opening frame, packing a wallop thanks to expert direction and flawless acting from Renner. It is more than a film; it is a heart attack.

Trailer: