If Alfred Hitchcock were to do a war movie it would be along the same lines as The Hurt Locker (2009). A movie who’s suspense and tension comes from the job of its characters. We watch as these soldiers diffuse the road side bombs of the Iraq War, and in a war where the news constantly reports IED’s going off and killing American soldiers, their job is essential.
Kathryn Bigelow throws us right into the action from the beginning and rarely lets us go. There is more tension in 3 minutes of this film than in most action movies of the past five years. It is very specific to the Iraq war but it is not political. It is about men doing their job and coping with the sheer brutality of what their job entails especially if it goes wrong. And many times it does go wrong. I would rank The Hurt Locker along with Paul Haggis’s In The Valley of Elah as the best fictional Iraq War movie.
The film concentrates on the unbalanced relationship between three soldiers. The team leader of the crew is played by Jeremy Renner. Renner has never before been an actor on my radar but I will be a big proponent of him moving forward and (if I had any say) push for him to get an Oscar nomination for his performance in this film. Renner’s character William James is a adrenaline junkie that by all accounts loves what he does, but in his need for an adrenaline fix he puts his soldiers in danger. However he is more than likeable and relatable, he plays the character cool, but with a tortured soul. Self pity mixed with a sense of duty can be a clichéd road to go down for an actor but Renner manages it beautifully.
Despite my glowing praise for this film, it does have its downfalls as inevitably most all movies do. The first three fourths were near perfect, but the last quarter suffered from the fact that there wasn’t a more solid through line other than James being an adrenaline junkie. The few long-winded conversations ended up feeling like they were there to add layers that weren’t necessarily needed. And despite Bigelow’s great direction and skillful management of the material (a sniper scene about halfway through the film could be a college course in building tension while developing character) I wondered why Bigelow decided to go back and forth between gritty video for the indoor/character development scenes and great film cinematography for the bomb scenes. To be honest if she had filmed this whole movie more deliberately and stylistically rather than handheld and on the run, I could guarantee this would be a best picture nominee (it still may be now that the field of best picture noms are at ten). Despite my few qualm’s about the film, I can certainly see this ranking on my top ten of the year.
If you are looking for a real action movie that hits all the right notes Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker is a film to see.
****
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