The Hurt Locker (2009)

Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow

Starring: Jeremy Renner

****1/2

Politics aside, The Hurt Locker is a really good movie. I'm so glad director Kathryn Bigelow had the same approach and left the politics of our current situation with those camel f***ers in Iraq (to quote Walter Sobchak) to the wayside and focused on what turned out to be a very personal story and a daily fight for survival. The structure of the story is at times almost absent but the substance of the characters is actually very structured here and I really appreciated how Bigelow really stayed true to what she was trying to do and didn't get mixed up with good guys and bad guys. Of course we side with the Americans anyway... USA, USA!

After the death of their bomb difuser, played by Guy Pierce in his second small role this year, Bravo company is forced to adapt to his unconvential replacement, Seargent Will James (Jeremy Renner). James doesn't take even close to the same precautions that his predecessor employed much to the chagrin of Seargents Sanborn and Eldrigdge played by Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty respectively. The three soldiers are what is more commonly referred to as the bomb squad. Their sole mission is to report to a bomb site and difuse both the bomb itself and the situation. There's a strict routine that's to be followed in order to ensure everyone's safety but James style threatens that safety but despite his "wild man" style, there is one thing he understands above all. His job is to difuse bombs.

The film also understands this and uses it to enhance the journey of Sgt. James. When James is doing his job, things seem to go right. Suspense mounts and scenes are tense and gripping but we get the early impression that James is very good at what he does and he's not going to change the way he does it regardless of who it makes uncomfortable. When James strays from what he's out there to do, that is when things take turns for the worse. This isn't here to tell us that soldiers on Iraq are only there to follow orders and that they do so or people die. Its not telling us this because this isn't a war movie, not anywhere but on the surface. This is a personal journey of three men all of whom are individually defined. There are some aspects of each character that are left to be desired but overall, we learn what we need to about why James, Sanborn and Eldridge are on this journey, how they feel about being there and what they left behind and whether or not they want to get back to it.

The first half of this movie is repetative. Its one bomb difusing mission after the next, each time, the bomb is bigger, the difusing is harder and the surroundings are more dangerous. At that point in the film, I began to question if this is all we could get out of a war movie with no politics. A collection of very entertaining and well shot scenes. From that point on, after we spent a little more time than necessary learning what these characters do, we really learn who these characters are and what's important to them. There is a very stark contrast between the three of them and their differences definitely create some drama but Bigelow is careful not to bog us down with cliche arguments and Michael Bay type cheesiness. Early in the film, Sanborn stands over a box of his former squad leaders belongings. He steps back and looks at it. I caught myself saying, Michael Bay would have him salute the box now... Bigelow doesn't, it was nice.

The end of this film surprised me. It was so disciplined that to see it go in the complete opposite direction was frustrating, especially when there was a perfectly good spot to end after Sanborn gives a very heartfelt speech about what he wants in life (Anthony Mackie's great performance was really highlighted here). To then head back to the real world and see James shopping with his wife and son was so unnecessary. The mundaneness of life isn't important. I know James is an adreniline junkie and that after difusing bombs for a living, what could possibly live up to that, I also already knew that he doens't really love his wife so why bother toying with the overused theme of life made more sense over there...

I'd only seen one of Bigelow's films prior to The Hurt Locker and she wasn't on my must-see director list after K-19: The Widowmaker but this movie really proves she knows what she's doing. The docu-drama style is fine but its subtlty of some of her shots that really distinguish this film. When we catch a glimpse of a sniper or a bomb on the ground, suspense really mounts. Nothing is unmotivated. I think she's very deserving of a best director nomination if not the Oscar itself. She isn't self-aware the way Tarantino is with Basterds so that could count against her but the subtlety of her direction should not go unnoticed.