I usually need to put some distance between watching a film about war and the war in which it takes place. It is too real and too painful to watch while the war, or in our situation, the two wars are still being fought.
The Hurt Locker takes place in Iraq. It took awhile for me to understand that this film was not just one's expected general war movie about Iraq but about a specific group - an elite unit of bomb specialists who seek out and disarm IEDs or roadside bombs.
Two military servicemen and members of Bravo Company, Sgt. Sanborn and Specialist Eldridge, find themselves with a new leader who they regard as reckless with himself, the military protocol, and in their protection. It is this conflict on whether Staff Sergeant James is a loose cannon or just a precision specialist professional that drives the film.
To experience this film, one needs to view it in the theater. It is only there one can be transported into the soldiers' worlds of darkness to literally feel the danger, the fear and the exhaustion. For me, the scene where Staff Sergeant James travels from trying to remove the bombs locked around an unwilling suicide bomber to a U.S. grocery store with its calming piped-in music and entire aisle of breakfast cereals is so poignant. How do these young men and women make that change with even any degree of success?
I'm not a big fan of movies about war, but this was shot incredibly well. It is of note that this film's director is Kathryn Bigelow.
4.0 out of 5.0 stars.
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