THE HURT LOCKER
Intensively shot and brilliantly performed, deserving member of best Hollywood war flick club
By Quiien

A Multivision release in India of a Voltage Pictures presentation, in association with Grosvenor Park Media and FCEF, of a Voltage Pictures, First Light, Kingsgate Films production. (International sales: Voltage, Los Angeles.)

Produced by Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier, Greg Shapiro
Executive producer Tony Mark
Co-producer Donall McCusker
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Screenplay Mark Boal




Starring

Staff Sgt. William James - Jeremy Renner
Sgt. J.T. Sanborn - Anthony Mackie
Specialist Owen Eldridge - Brian Geraghty
Sgt. Matt Thompson - Guy Pearce
Contractor Team Leader - Ralph Fiennes
Col. Reed - David Morse
Connie James - Evangeline Lilly
Col. John Cambridge - Christian Camargo
"Beckham" - Christopher Sayegh



Technical Analysis

Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraqi War drama puts your nerves in a blender, and twists your guts into a Gordian knot. It is the winner of 6 Academy Awards, including, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing.

Hurt Locker is set during the last 38 days, in the year-long rotation of a three-man U.S. Army bomb squad stationed in Baghdad. With a visual and emotional intensity that makes audiences feel like they have been transported to Iraq’s dizzying, 24-hour turmoil, this film gives us a true sense of what it feels like to be on the front lines.

Bigelow explores the effect on the psyche of such imminent danger in both the big picture and more intimate ways. Even though the film is very intense, there are parts that make you smile at the goofy banter of the characters.

Sgt. J.T Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) have been trained to handle homemade bombs and explosive devices or Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) that account for more than half of American hostile deaths and have killed thousands of Iraqis.

It is a high-pressure, high-stakes assignment, the job leaves no room for mistakes, and they learn that when they lose their team leader on one such mission. Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) joins their team, in replacement of their former team leader. He seems very cocky and Sanborn and Eldridge take an instant dislike to his cowboy-style arrogance and apparent disregard for safety measures and accepted protocol. But in the fog of war, appearances are never reliable for long.

The Hurt Locker clearly shows the difference between bravery and bravado. It is a hauntingly memorable film that is as visually riveting as it is emotionally intense. The fact that there are very few known faces work for the film, as it gives it a more real feel.

Bigelow reveals character through action. Hurt Locker is way different that any war movie we've ever seen before. Here, combat is more often a solitary rather than a group endeavor.

Bigelow uses ‘Time’ as her organizing principle—the time left in Iraq for the men of Bravo company which is displayed on the screen from time to time throughout, the clock that ticks away between the discovery of a bomb and its eventual disarming or detonation, and the time that, in those unbearably tense moments, seems to stretch out indefinitely toward the horizon.

The screenplay and the editing is close to flawless. The dialogues are remarkable. The use of diegetic and indiegetic sounds is brilliant. The ‘Silence’ is used extremely well. The cinematography is resplendent and splendid! The cinematography is one of the preeminent reasons that make the audiences “feel” what the characters of the film feel. Hurt Locker is an experimental war film that talks more about what the soldiers go through on a day to day basis during the war, and the effect of the war on their psyche. It reminds one of films like ‘Thin Red Line’ and the 1950’s docu drama ‘You are There’.

All in all it is a must watch for all. It easily demands a 4 stars on 5! If not the best war film.. It definitely makes the list of one of the Best War films made in Hollywood..



The Story

During the early months of the post-invasion period in Iraq, Sergeant First Class William James becomes the new team leader of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit with the U.S. Army's Bravo Company, replacing Staff Sergeant Thompson, who was killed by a remote-detonated improvised explosive device (IED) in Baghdad. He joins Sergeant J.T. Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge, whose jobs are to communicate with their team leader via radio inside his bombsuit, and provide him with rifle cover while he examines an IED. James's doesn’t like working with machines and prefers disarm the bomb himself.  This behavior seems reckless to Sanborn and Eldridge.

Back at Camp Victory, James befriends Beckham, a young Iraqi boy who works for a local merchant operating at the base, selling pirated DVD’s to the soldiers.

The trio is next called to the United Nations building in Baghdad, where a big car supposedly has a bomb in the trunk because it seems to be suspended from the garage. Sanborn and Eldridge provide cover while James works on disarming the bomb. 3 men seem to be watching them from a minaret and another person seems to be filming this entire event from a nearby rooftop and this upsets Sanborn. Meanwhile, James frantically tries to disarm the bomb.  After the building is evacuated, Sanborn suggests that they leave and let the engineers come and disarm the bomb, but James ignores it and throws his headset out of the car which angers Sanborn. James remains inside the car until he disarms the device.

On another mission, while returning from detonating bombs in the desert, the EOD team encounters a British private military company. They soon come under enemy attack, and three of the British mercenaries are killed in the ensuing firefight, which ends after Sanborn and James shoot the last of the insurgent snipers. This entire sequence is easily the best sequence in the entire film. The cinematography, sound, the performances, is just brilliant. You feel like you are with the characters in that arid desert and wait for this ordeal to get over!

For their next mission, the team heads to a warehouse to retrieve unexploded ordnance. While securing the warehouse, James discovers the dead body of a young boy who has been surgically implanted with an unexploded bomb. James is sure that it is Beckham, while Sanborn and Eldridge are not entirely certain as the body is so filled with blood. That night, James forces the merchant for whom Beckham worked to drive him to Beckham's house. Upon entering the house to which he is brought, James encounters an Iraqi professor and demands to know who was responsible for turning Beckham into a "body bomb". The professor thinks James is a CIA agent and calmly invites him to sit down as a guest of his household. A confused James is then forced out of the house by the man's wife, and sneaks back into Camp Victory with the help of a sympathetic guard. That same night, Eldridge is accidentally shot in the leg during a mission in which the EOD team successfully tracks down and kills two bomb makers. The next morning, James is approached by Beckham, who is alive and well. Much to Beckham's confusion, he is completely ignored by James. Eldridge blames James for his injury, claiming James unnecessarily put his life at risk just so that he could have an "adrenaline fix", referring to Sanborn's suggestion that the mission, which James had ordered, would be better suited for an infantry platoon.
 
With only two days left on their current tour, James and Sanborn are called in to assist in a situation where a man was forced to wander into a military checkpoint with a time-bomb strapped to his chest. James cannot remove the bomb nor disarm it in time, and is forced to flee before the bomb goes off. On the ride back to the base, Sanborn becomes emotional and confesses to James that he can no longer cope with the pressure of being in EOD, and relishes the prospect of finally leaving Iraq and starting a family, which at a previous point he had mentioned he wasn’t ready for. James is next seen back at home with his wife and child, visibly bored with civilian life. One night he has an internal monologue in the form of speaking aloud to his infant son, where he says that there is only "one thing" that he knows he loves. He is next seen back in Iraq, as part of an EOD team, now serving with the Delta team.. “365 days left for rotation” appears on the screen.



Business Analysis

The most buzzed Hollywood release of the week should find its audience but an overwhelming response is doubtful due to its generic approach.



Other Credits

Camera (color), Barry Ackroyd; editors, Bob Murawski, Chris Innis; music, Marco Beltrami, Buck Sanders; music supervisor, John Bissell; production designer, Karl Juliusson; art director, David Bryan; costume designer, George Little; sound (Dolby Digital), Ray Beckett; sound designer, Paul N.J. Ottosson; stunt coordinator, Robert Young; special effects supervisor, Richard Stutsman; visual effects, Company 3; associate producers, Jack Schuster, Jenn Lee; assistant director, David Ticotin; second unit camera, Niels Reedtz Johansen; casting, Mark Bennett. Reviewed at Famous studios, Mumbai on April 07 2010. Running time: 127 MIN.

Indianmotionpictures.com is striving to present the most thorough review database. We do not currently list below-the-line credits, although we hope to include them in the future. Please note we may not respond to every suggestion. Your assistance is appreciated.