"The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug." – Chris Hedges, War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
American audiences have been reticent in rushing out to see movies depicting war and the current political climate. Not surprising, since they’ve more than gotten their fair share in the daily news. The majority of these films (Stop-Loss, Rendition) have fallen flat on their face. The Hurt Locker, a refreshingly apolitical take on the subject matter, is not one of them. It is a great deal things, a taut drama, a splendid action movie, and, perhaps, the best depiction of the Iraqi War to date.
Sgt. J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and SPC Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) are members of an EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) unit deployed during the early stages of the invasion in 2004. Their team leader, SSgt. Thompson (Guy Pearce), is killed in the opening moments by an IED (improvised explosive device). He is replaced by SFC Will James (Jeremy Renner) who isn’t afraid to literally get his hands dirty when defusing explosive devices. He tosses aside his protective suit at one point proclaiming, ”If I’m gonna die, I want to die comfortable.” In the aftermath of a bombing, he rushes off into the night to go after the perpetrators.
His recklessness immediately puts him into conflict with his comrades. Sanborn is by-the-books and with a little over a month left in their tour of duty only wants to get home in one piece. Eldridge is traumatized following Thompson’s death and carries the guilt over not pulling the trigger on the insurgent detonating the bomb.
James is not the typical maladjusted combat veteran. Yes, he is more at home on the battlefield than he is shopping for breakfast cereal with his wife (Evangeline Lilly) and son. Yes, he is something of an adrenaline junkie. But, he’s not callous. He’s simply learned to deal with the life-or-death situations in an emotionally detached manner. James tugs on a wire to find it attached to seven other bombs buried in the sand. With clinical precision, he simply yanks the connecting wires loose. He keeps a box of mementos under his bed, matter-of-factly explaining they are pieces of the devices that have almost killed him. As James, Jeremy Renner gives a star-making performance. There is an eerie calmness to his man trying to stay sane in an insane world.
One of the few female directors working in the action genre, Kathryn Bigelow, has a better grip of the on-screen happenings than most of her overpaid mail counterparts. She has already helmed a trio of underrated films in Near Dark, Strange Days, and Point Break (yes, Point Break) and she’s finally receiving well-deserved accolades for Hurt Locker. The film was shot on location in Jordan and Kuwait with four 16mm cameras covering the production. There’s immediacy and a sustained tension underlying throughout the movie.
Is it a perfect film? Far from it, the screenplay by former embedded journalist Mark Boal drifts off tangent from time to time. The most jarring subplot involves James’ befriending of a local Iraqi boy selling bootleg DVDs. Real-life veterans have criticized the inaccuracies in combat scenarios. Criticisms aside, The Hurt Locker is still one of the best war movies made by Hollywood and easily one of the best pictures of 2009.
Rating: ***
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