THE HURT LOCKER (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008) ***1/2

Rating: 8/10 (13 March 2010)

Presciently, I caught up with this on the same day as it emerged victorious at the Oscars. I had watched a few films about America's latest conflicts – BLACK HAWK DOWN (2001), JARHEAD (2005) and REDACTED (2007) – but, in spite of the little-known cast (apart from nice cameos by Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pearce), it is easily the best of the lot. Incidentally, I was familiar with only a few of Bigelow's previous efforts but I plan to make amends throughout this week: it is ironic, however, that for a woman to win an Oscar it took her making a man's kind of film! Anyway, echoing the feeling of some others here, I approached this with some trepidation believing it had nothing new to offer; to be sure, the idea of a reckless boffin was not really original (in fact, it has been a good 60 years since The Archers dealt with this very subject within a WWII context in THE SMALL BACK ROOM!) but, for a modern film, I admit it is well above average – while I am at it, I also intend to catch up with several titles of recent vintage I missed out on for whatever reason. I still need to check out AVATAR (2009), by the way – it is also scheduled for this week, hopefully along with James Cameron's Extended Version of THE ABYSS (1988) – but I was glad that the subtle, if all-important, work performed by the sound department on THE HURT LOCKER was recognized at the expense of the more bombastic{sic} aural experience that AVATAR is bound to be. To get back to the film under review, Jeremy Renner's showy role notwithstanding, it was also atypical – thus highly commendable – for the leading actor from a war film to elicit this kind of attentionbut, then, Christoph Waltz from INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009) had it even better since he did win the Supporting award! The film's episodic nature results in many a tense situation (not least because the bomb-disposal unit's delicate job is forever being observed by the obviously disapproving and vaguely menacing locals) but also a few smaller moments (including Renner's relationship with a native boy) – all of which, however, are vital to the characterization (smoothing over some of its more predictable aspects) which, as already intimated, is what has singled this one out for praise (hence, the Best Original Screenplay Oscar win was just as deserving as the technical side of production). Finally, I found it highly refreshing that THE HURT LOCKER refrains from really taking sides in the conflict or become a blatantly anti-war film; on the contrary, it acknowledges the adrenalin rush that hardened war veterans get addicted to over time and are willing to sacrifice their lives (and sanity) to attain!