Over the last few years, we have been inundated with movies about the Iraq War; “In the Valley of Elah”, “Stop-Loss”, and Brian DePalma’s atrocious “Redacted”, among others. They’ve been, for the most part, preachy, heavy handed polemics and they all dropped dead at the Box Office. I’m of the opinion that the movie going public just isn’t interested in movies about the Iraq War. They see it every day on the news, why would they want to pay to see it at a theater? Don’t we go to the movies to escape reality? Isn’t that why movies about giant robots and superheroes generally rake in the money and movies about Iraq do not? That’s the biggest hurdle for “The Hurt Locker” to overcome. Frankly, despite the strong buzz from film festivals and the Internet, I don’t see it finding an audience in theaters simply because it is about Iraq. Which is too bad, because unlike a lot of the other films on the subject, “The Hurt Locker” is one hell of a good movie.
Written by journalist Mark Boal (who was embedded in Iraq), the movie is about an elite three man bomb squad working in the war torn streets of Baghdad. When their leader is killed, he’s replaced by Staff Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner). James is a bomb diffusing expert who is not only fearless, he’s a full blown adrenaline junkie who gets off on his job (right after he diffuses his first bomb, he lights up a cigarette like he just had the best sex of his life). He’s reckless and quite possibly a little nuts. That naturally puts him at odds with the other men on the squad, Sgt. J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty).
What sets “The Hurt Locker” apart from other Iraq War movies, is that it’s not a polemic. Instead, it’s a brass-balled, take-no-prisoners action flick with a brain. A key element of what makes this film work so well is how it draws out the suspense in a number of crucial scenes; James’ standoff with an Iraqi cab driver after the driver ran through a military check point, a long distance showdown with a group of insurgent snipers in the desert, chasing insurgents through the dark alleys of Baghdad in the middle of the night, and my personal favorite, a gut wrenching scene where James is trying to cut explosives off an innocent Iraqi who was coerced into putting them on. This movie has so many great scenes and moments it’s impossible to list them all. And the tension that built up in each of those sequences was almost too much and gave me a sense of the reality over there. There could be a sniper in any window, a bomb in any pile of trash, and any of these characters could be killed at any moment. I believed every second of it.
What might surprise a lot of people is the fact that this movie was directed by a woman, Kathryn Bigelow. But anyone familiar with Ms. Bigelow’s resume (“Point Break”, “Strange Days”, “Near Dark”) knows that she is very adept at dealing with guys and guns, she knows how to stage and shoot a kickass action sequence, and she completely outdoes herself here. This is far and away her best film to date, in my humble opinion. She shot it pseudo-documentary style in the streets of Amman, Jordan (doubling well for Baghdad), and gives it all a gritty sense of reality. She and writer Boal also make the very wise decision to keep politics out of the equation. There’s no preaching or moralizing here, they don’t say if the war is right or wrong, they don’t try to shove any message down our throats, they just show it as is and let us make up our own minds.
The performances by the three leads are very impressive. Jeremy Renner, as James, is an actor who’s been on my radar for a few years (“S.W.A.T.”, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Movie with a Ridiculously Long Title”), and while he was always quite good, this, I think, could be his overdue breakout. He takes a very complex role, a man who is addicted to war and who can barely function in civilian life, and completely inhabits it. The guy just exudes menace and charisma with his fuck-it-all attitude. It was one of those rare instances where I forgot I was watching an actor playing a part. That’s what defines a great actor, and Mr. Renner may very well emerge as one. Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty are also very solid as the other members of the bomb squad. The characters were very well rounded and developed, and came across as actual human beings, instead of clichéd war movie characters. And for those of you wondering “Jeremy who? Anthony what?”, don’t worry, there are some familiar faces who appear in some surprising and terrific cameos.
If there’s anything I’d complain about, it would be the movie’s length. At 2 hours and 10 minutes, the flick just felt a little longish. I think they could’ve trimmed a good 10, 15 minutes off of it… but that’s just nitpicking. Overall, “The Hurt Locker” is a taut, exciting, yet intelligent war movie that was unpredictable and often had me on the edge of my seat. As I said, Iraq War movies aren’t known for their Box Office appeal, and I don’t foresee “The Hurt Locker” breaking that trend, but I would pleasantly surprised if it did, as it is definitely worth a trip to the theater. So if you do get a chance to see it, see it. That’s an order!
H-Man
Internet Troll and Instigator
