Review of The Hurt Locker (2008) by Official C — 30 Apr 2015

Monday, December 20, 2010.

(2008) The Hurt Locker.

WAR.

"The Hurt Locker" or a "Soldier's Journal", starts out with a new recruit for this particular group, and his name is Sergeant First Class William James, played memorably by Jeremy Renner, since the other "Bomb Tech" got killed in action! I have to say in terms of the emotions, atmosphere or the experience, it felt quite real because this is "only" accordingly to "one" particular group and only one guy, who does not have a political agenda whether or not they should be there on the front lines or not, but what they're assigned to do, and is still a job no matter how big the risks are! It is a 24 hour job because "one" would not know when one is ever needed to undetonate an explosive device and it is something any sane person would not want to look forward to. But as the movie progressed, the only way this person were to confront this, as the other two soldiers observed while working alongside with him is to "psyche" yourself out as sort of an adrenline rush because your life can be gone in an instant! One of the most powerful lines here was when the star of the film says, "we need more bomb techs here in Iraq" because this job is not at all appealing! And although the movie is plotless, the experiences about a single persons journey toward war is very accurately portrayed here, since most of them spend much of their life living on a thread, and is not like spending it on the Bahamas sunbathing in the sun. And upon returning to the US for a tempory leave to spend some quality time with his family, that it was like coming back to a whole new world all over again, and hard for Will to adjust back to a life of normacy, when at the same time, knows that he still has to go back to a war that doesn't seem to end!

Also what this movie provides are what would happened if a soldier were to leave it's compound, and they're also some hazing. And although, drinking alcohol may not be too accurate, it could be a reflection of previous wars Americans had experienced, such as when the US army were fighting in Vietnam or in WWII against the Japanese and Germany!

I wanted to give this film a much higher rating, but I feel that the first incident was 100% avoidable which regards holding up a cell phone, and the soldier Sergeant JT Sanborn played by Anthony Mackie who was pointing a gun at this guy told him to put it down and instead of just either shooing him or shooting the phone on his hand, for some strange reason he just allowed him to continue to press the buttons on his phone anyway, causing the explosion to go off! But the reason for this was to introduce the Jeremy Renner character!

If I was asked whether or not it deserved "Best Picture" as well as a bunch of other Oscar awards! And the answer is- "yes" it does, because it is the first film I had ever saw from the perspective of a soldier and not accordingly to some high official general sitting behind a desk if the war is controlled onto the desert field!

CONTAIN SPOILERS.

I've just recently purchased this film and would have to say that the last 20 minutes of the film is the most powerful I had ever saw about the desert war, one of few scenes regards a conversation with his wife, and Will wants to just have something to talk about, but doesn't really have anything to tell her except about his war experiences, and she obviously does not want to hear about young kids blowned up by some suicidal bomber and instead says 'chop these carrots for me', there's also a social commentary about why soldiers can't make bonds with the peaceful civilians living amongst them while fighting because if they have a rapport with some of them and then get killed by some senseless attack, may take a toll on the soldiers lives or feel guilty about it! And would have to say that the ending is one of the most strongest I had ever saw, because at the beginning of the film, Soldier Will starts to counts the number of days until his next leave to see his family and then at the end of the film, after staying with them for a few days or weeks, he had to go back again, back to the sidelines starting his count this time from 365 Days left for his next leave, if he lives that is!

3 out of 4.