The Hurt Locker

Review by Adam Gold / orangecounty.com
A lot of Hollywood movies these days seem to pile on action and special effects, and then forget about the importance of story and character development. If you don’t care about who’s shooting or getting shot at, or if you really have no idea who they are, then the film probably is not going to work at all. Films like “Terminator Salvation” and “Transformers 2” are two examples of all of the above; heavy on action and effects, lazy on story and characters. “The Hurt Locker” is nothing like the two aforementioned films. Not only does it have no part in any major Hollywood studio, it is also easily the most engaging, convincing, well-done action films that I have seen in a long time.

The Hurt Locker does more than show some of the most macho sequences of warfare shown on-screen in at least a decade; it also manages to show how blatantly sexist Hollywood is off-screen. Director Kathryn Bigelow has crafted some of the most intense and “manly” action scenes that you will see all year. It is rare that a female should direct a film of this sort, but why? Why is it that men can direct great action features and war films, and then switch freely to romances and chick-flicks while female directors are confined to only being able to do “feminine” films. “The Hurt Locker” pretty much destroys any notion that a female could not direct one of the most “mantastic” features you’ll ever see.

Bigelow’s style is absolutely relentless, the action is long, but never drawn out, and the characters are always in constant life or death situations. While it may seem intensity doesn’t necessarily make it manly, in scenes where guns are not being fired, men are trash talking and punching each other. Somehow, in the short periods of time between the seemingly endless, well constructed action sequences, the characters are developed in a conceivable and understandable fashion. Screenwriter Mark Boal was an Iraq war journalist prior to writing the film, and it shows. The odd situations that make life harder for the soldiers in the film make it not only believable, but utterly real. Boal had a lot of interesting stories he heard in his time overseas and he packs them all into this great two hour experience. This also adds a lot of originality to the situations that occur in the film.

The funny thing is that Bigelow did it in a genre that men have tried and failed to conquer many times before. Well seasoned male filmmakers from Peter Berg to Sam Mendes have tried, and ultimately failed to make a truly great film about the war on terror in the Middle East. While those films were very focused on the psyche of the landscape and of the soldiers fighting, “The Hurt Locker” doesn’t take very much time to verbally establish any new thoughts on modern warfare. As an audience we have been exposed to these many times, and instead of explaining these things, they are generally shown. You don’t need to hear a character tell you, “What’s different between Iraq 2004 and Germany 1942? You are constantly tense. Anything could happen anytime, anywhere. You never know who your enemies are. They aren’t in uniforms like they were back then.” Instead these hard facts are beautifully illustrated by the character’s actions in all of the many intense sequences that fill “The Hut Locker”.

Non-stop tension means you rarely know what is going to happen next, and the film makes it abundantly clear in its opening sequence that any character is fair game, anyone could die at any moment. Just when you think, “There’s no way these guys could get into a worse situation!” the film proves you wrong, again and again. In the film’s last 30 minutes you’re never sure what is going to happen next.

One of the richest parts of “The Hurt Locker” is its characters and the performances that round them out. Whether it’s the British troops our bomb squad runs into in the middle of the desert, or it’s the squad themselves, there are tons of interesting characters that fill up the film. It does not really focus on Iraqis much at all, and only one little Iraqi boy has a large part in the story of the film. A no bull military commander played brilliantly by David Morse pops up in the film for a mere 3 to 5 minutes of screen time, yet he represents the leadership that the military is getting on a regular basis. He is rigid, serious, and cold as Colonel Reed, but most importantly he is utterly and completely believable. Ralph Fiennes plays the leader of the pack of Brits our American friends find out in the sand dunes of Iraq. They are a group of British mercenaries (or as the government calls them, “Private Contractors”) head hunting insurgents for large cash rewards.

Guy Pearce lends his familiar face to the film in its memorable opening sequence that sets up the circumstances of the film very clearly. Anthony Mackie gives a solid, yet overshadowed performance as “Sergeant JT Sanborn”. He is a no-nonsense, by the book kind of guy, and he has some serious problems with his new team leader who is pretty much exactly the opposite. Brian Geraghty is also overshadowed in his part as “Specialist Owen Eldridge”, and while his part is important as the “innocent” soldier who finds killing another human being very difficult. I mentioned that both Mackie and Geraghty were “overshadowed”, but I never mentioned by whom.

The film’s main character is played by Jeremy Renner in a career performance as a hot headed bomb diffuser “Staff Sergeant William James.” It’s not like he hasn’t had a career up until now, he has been in many major Hollywood films. He’s got a leading part on the show “The Unusuals”, and he had sizeable parts in “28 Weeks Later” and “The Assassination of Jesse James”. “The Hurt Locker” is simply his first real chance to shine. His character is done perfectly both on screen and in the script. He’s very believable and realistic, but at the same time, he’s a very entertaining character to watch. He’s funny, his actions are dangerous and reckless, and he always puts other people at more risk than they need to be in. He is not the best or most trustworthy leader, but the movie would not be anything close to the same without him. He makes the film what it is, and while he probably isn’t a perfect hero at all, he’s very good at diffusing bombs, and he loves doing it.

“The Hurt Locker” is one of those rare movie experiences where you’ll be glued to your seat for a few minutes after the credits begin to roll. I don’t think I can describe, in writing, just how intense the film is a as a whole, but I would encourage everyone to see it. It’s not all that enlightening; it’s not this year’s “peacemaking” Middle Eastern drama that tries to explain how stupid the war is. I think the filmmaker assumed that all of us already know how stupid the war is. So rather than trying to get everyone to hold hands and break bread, she made a ballsy, manly, action filled war film that does not glorify violence, but that doesn’t entirely condemn it either. This is not another “Hollywood hates the Bush Government” film, even though it is entirely set in Iraq in 2004. Most importantly though, it works, and it works very, very well. “The Hurt Locker” is one of the most personal, engaging, and honestly dark films that you’ve seen in years. It’s also the best film of 2009 thus far.

9.5/10