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War is ugly. War is dirty. War is not needed. And yet we fight. The Hurt Locker is a fantastic depiction of this very ugly drug and what it does to regular men.
It is the summer of 2004 the two men of Bravo Company Sergeant Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge witness the gruesome death of their commander Staff Sergeant Thompson as he was trying to disarm an Improvised Explosive Device or IED. These homemade bombs are the reason for the deaths of not only the American soldiers but also thousands of Iraqi's.
Enter Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) who takes over Bravo Company. James does not work by any rules; he does not care too much for the protocol and often swaggers his way into high pressure situations. This bravado attitude of his scares the daylights out of the other two members of his team who wants nothing more than the safe termination of their tour. With just over month left in their tour each day gets the closer to death and James' attitude does not really help.
After a few hiccups James manages to melt the ice and the men of Bravo Company became a formidable team. Being in close proximity with death on a daily basis soon takes its toll on James. He throws caution to the winds and ends up wiping the lines between heroism and bravado.
More than being a mere well crafted film The Hurt Locker redefines the very manner in which war films would have made this point onwards. One can already see the impact of Kathryn Bigelow's instant masterpiece on war films in Green Zone. A visible lack of political agenda makes The Hurt Locker more compelling and visceral. Based on an article and later a script by Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow stark and realistic approach makes The Hurt Locker intelligently riveting.
Jeremy Renner, who notched up an Oscar nod for this role of William James, gets the tightrope walk of his character. Bigelow extracts a fine performance from not only her lead but also the supporting action that feature some interesting cameos by Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes.
Many have hailed The Hurt Locker as a close perfect film and they are not off the mark. With high level visual and emotional intensity that has not been witnessed in a film for some years now, The Hurt Locker depicts the edgy real battles cooked both internally and externally. This is a must watch film.
Cast: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse and Evangeline Lilly.
Written by: Mark Boal
Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow
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