Review of The Hurt Locker (2008) by Sidney S — 22 Aug 2012

Astonishing! and truly triumphant filmmaking. Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq war indie film is truly a masterpiece and very different then your normal motion picture. From her style she chose to direct it gives us a very documentary, live experience sort of style making you feel like your right in on all of the action.

Jeremy Renner gives a mesmerizing and truly Oscar worthy performance as William James, the Staff Sgt. who leads his crew through various war zones in Iraq while disarming dangerous bombs. Renner truly became consumed by his character from his recklessness and adrenaline seeking attitude in the war, along with his vengeance and fury upon learning of the death of a young boy. Renner is no doubt one of the stars to watch as he is going to have one great career ahead of him. The supporting cast was also excellent with Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pearce.

The war sequences itself were very realistic looking from the shootouts, sniper scenes and any scene where combat is suspected to occur. It gives the audience a sense of paranoia as to what may happen. It brings you to the edge of your seat. Truly exciting. It also gets very emotional when members of the team become injured and/or die because the way the film is constructed you feel as if you are right there with them. I also loved the scene where Renner's character goes out for blood due to the death of a young boy, this espionage scene was awesome, dark and ironically a great foreshadow to Renner's future role as a spy in The Bourne Legacy.

The Hurt Locker gets you hooked from start to finish there is not one dull moment and it has an awesome but at the same time somewhat emotional ending as you know how reckless the character is and that he may have returned to face his own death. The Hurt Locker is truly worthy of the Oscar it won and is no doubt one of the best films of the decade. The best war movie since Platoon, and the best modern war movie.