"The Hurt Locker" by Kathryn Bigelow: a review

Here is a great movie that is a must watch for all you movie lovers out there. This fantastic movie won a total of 6 Oscars at the academy awards with other 72 wins and 46 nominations in other award ceremonies.

The storyline was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a US bomb squad in Iraq. It stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghtyas members of a U.S. Army EOD unit in Iraq and follows their tour with them as they contend with defusing bombs, the threat of insurgency, and the tension that develops among them. Here is a small summary for the plot here:

The 40 days at the front in Iraq, a team of bomb disposal and mine clearance in the U.S. Army, special units with extremely high mortality rate. When all that remains of his predecessor ends in a "box of pain", ready to return as head of the EOD (explosive disposal units) comes the blond William James, a man who has defused an incredible number of bombs and seems to know no fear of death. One that does not count the days, a volunteer who chose that job and it was left to absorb up to the point of no return.

At a distance of six years from K-19, Kathryn Bigelow returns to talk of war and dependence on the border several times-already-explored between bravery and alienation.

The story straight ahead and anxiety, like the walk of artifice in the suit, a real walk on the moon of a dead man walking, there are the trappings of the genre - the soldier who is afraid, the alcoholic-but reduced to fisticuffs' bone, and is the hero, a David facing the Goliath of the explosive with his bare hands, to whom we are led to think that it has nothing to lose, but the opposite is true.

The Bigelow moved over the years in and out of Hollywood, but nothing will be worth trying in The Hurt Locker extreme denunciation of Redacted, the questioning of what we watch, (not) know, we allow. The image returns to the director of Iraq is not new and is certainly biased, but that's not the point. What matters is the desert of the soul, the darkness of war that draws near and attracts an intelligent (able to understand in a few seconds the enemy it faces, the type of bomb) as the fire draws a moth.

Managing the pace dramatically, because the pace (of the waves, the brain, the action) has always been the object of his reflection film, Kathryn Bigelow has made a powerful film, which sells only in some crevice of the temptation explanation is unnecessary cameo. Relying on chronicles of reporter Mark Boal, produced and narrated apparently collateral damage but in fact substantial, coming in like never before in the question of gender (male).

In The Hurt Locker, there is one female character, which occupies an insignificant number of frames and a single bar of the dialogue, but we sense it immediately freedoms, including freedom of choice to be faithful to a man who is not there and not asks. The same man we are shown, on the contrary, the slave of the danger, strong emotion at all costs, that huge container of alibi which is war. And this is impossible to deny it, is a court flatly.

All there is to say is that this is a must watch movie for all technology movie lovers and I suggest all those who have not watched it till now to do so for sure.

“A rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug”, a quotation from the 2002 best selling book entitled War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning written by Chris Hedges, New York Times correspondent and journalist opens the movie Hurt Locker. This film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, won the top two prizes at the 2010 Academy Awards. Hurt Locker won both the Best Picture and the Best Director Awards. Kathryn Bigelow, ex-wife of the famous director James Cameron became the first female who won the Academy Award’s Best Director.

Hurt Locker centers around the story of three elite soldiers who are members of the U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit assigned in Iraq. They are assigned to one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, the unrecognized heroes of the U.S. Army whose job is to disarm countless numbers of roadside bombs in the streets of Baghdad. Sergeant First Class William James, Sergeant J.T. Sanborn, and Specialist Owen Eldridge have to save lives, battle against insurgents, and risk their lives daily for their work. They have to get rid of the thousands of home made bombs and Improvised Explosive Devices of IED’s in order to make the streets of Baghdad safer for both Americans and Iraqis. James who heads the team uses an unconventional method of disposing bombs. This leads the two other members of the team, Sanborn and Eldridge to consider James actions as reckless. Tension rises among the three as the story progresses.

Hurt Locker is an intense portrayal of how the soldiers in Iraq risk their lives daily in battle and the courage they show while in line with farming equipment. This movie shows the real life heroism and sacrifices of the men and women in battle. This also shows the risk and heart throbbing thrill that members of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Units experience everyday disposing bombs where the margin of error is zero.

Hurt Locker main actors include Jeremy Renner who portrays the role of Sergeant First Class William James, Anthony Mackie as Sergeant J.T. Sanborn, and Brian Geraghty who portrays the role of Specialist Owen Eldridge. Mark Boal a freelance journalist assigned in Iraq successfully wrote in fictional details the life of the elite soldiers assigned in the Disposal Unit. He showed the world the chilling ordeal many men and women in uniform went through in battle.

Hurt Locker was filmed in Kuwait and Jordan, just a few miles from the war zone so a ton of computer software was used in many sequences. It was in the Venice Film festival on September 2008 when the film was first seen. It has received a long standing ovation and won several awards. Next it was screened in the 33rd Annual Toronto International Film Festival of the same year. Summit Entertainment took noticed of the film and purchased it for distribution in the United States.

Finally, Hurt Locket brings you directly to the terrifying heart of the action. The film mesmerizes the viewers and at times drained them emotionally. Although the set up is simple it shows the courage and heroism of every member of the U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit.