Lethal Weapon meets the Iraqi Insurgency

Rating: 5/10 (19 September 2009)

After reading many posts about 'HL', I've come to the conclusion that members of Explosives Ordinance Disposal (EOD) squads in the military are professionals who do a tough job well. There is nothing glamorous about being an EOD but 'Hurt Locker' is determined to give these soldiers the Hollywood treatment. Hence, one might come to the conclusion that there IS something exciting and glamorous about being a member of an EOD squad.
SSgt. William James is more like a Mel Gibson loose cannon character from the Lethal Weapon series than a disciplined professional performing a difficult but routine job. Hollywood loves these loose cannon types but such a type does not really fit as a member of an EOD squad. Common sense will tell you that no EOD squad member would try and disarm an IED by going right up to it and cutting the wires with a plier. The bombs are always disposed of from a distance (as shown in the first scene with a robot—before it breaks down) so as not to endanger any soldiers or civilians in the vicinity.
Quite a number of people who liked this movie felt there were too many 'quibblers'—that movies are not supposed to be 100% accurate. That's true but there should be a modicum stab at realism, especially when attempting to depict the gritty reality of the Iraq War. When an insurgent attempts to blow up a car loaded with bombs (without also trying to take out the soldiers at the scene) that seems a bit far-fetched. But to make matters worse, the car doesn't blow up even though it's totally on fire. But instead of letting the car burn (which might lead to an eventual explosion), SSgt. James puts the fire out and then disarms the bomb himself, wasting precious time and putting himself and his comrades in harms way.
The EOD Squad seems to go everywhere outside their base without an escort. That would never happen in the real Army. What's more, most Army movies have interesting superior officers but not here. There's one good scene where a gung ho Colonel congratulates James for his loose cannon exploits but he's only on for a minute. There is also the Shrink who wants to see what's in like out in the field. Again, without an escort, he ends up the easy victim of an IED.
The point is made that James becomes more and more unhinged as he is on the verge of completing his tour of duty. After he finds a boy dead after being tortured in a bomb factory, he mistakes him for another boy who sold DVD's to him in a marketplace. Wholly inappropriately, he kidnaps a merchant from the marketplace who he suspects of tipping off insurgents. Without regard to the consequences, he forces the merchant to drive into town and give him the name of someone who might have given the boy up. He even tells the merchant to wait for him while he goes into the house of an innocent Iraqi family but of course the merchant drives off. The whole pointless enterprise is resolved when the man's wife hits him and he runs out with a huge welt on his forehead. What's more, no one reports James when he returns, even though he's stopped and searched by sentries at the entrance to the base.
Things get even more bizarre when James and his fellow EOD squad members are ordered to investigate a tanker explosion in the 'Green Zone' (how a tanker could get into the Green Zone, the most heavily protected area of Baghdad, I have no idea). Anyway, James gets the idea that this was not the work of a suicide bomber but a remote detonation near the scene of the explosion. Without a clue as to who might have been behind the crime, James orders the squad into an adjoining neighborhood where they (implausibly) split up and search for the faceless perpetrators. One of his guys is almost kidnapped but is saved only after James kills the bad guys but ends up shooting his EOD buddy in the leg. Again, James never gets into trouble for his antics and the whole incident never seems to be reported to his superiors.
Despite the implausibility of many of the scenes, Hurt Locker still has enough action scenes to keep your interest. The depiction of the different kinds of explosive devices the insurgents keep coming up with seems pretty convincing (they even go as far as booby trapping the body of a boy they recently tortured and killed). While pure Hollywood hokum, the denouement, where James attempts to save an Iraqi man who has changed his mind about being a suicide bomber, is pretty exciting (again, no EOD squad member would be allowed to try and save a man in that position since such actions could jeopardize everyone's lives at the scene).
While it appears that the film's scenarist did a modicum of homework finding out what's it like to be an EOD member in Iraq, he had little success in developing his characters. The interplay between James and Sgt. Sanborn was clichéd at the beginning, with the conservative Sanborn attempting to keep the wild James in check. Later the conflict dissipates and the relationship devolves into a flaccid buddy flick where the characters are reduced to enjoying themselves by punching each other in the stomach. The shaky hand-held camera technique gives the picture a documentary feel and the dialogue at times seems amateurishly improvised.
Although Hurt Locker has been classified as an 'indie' film, it's really a traditional Hollywood picture. While HL doesn't shrink from showing the horrors of war, the protagonist, James, is the typical gung ho American hero that John Wayne would have probably loved. I am willing to forgive Hurt Locker for its implausible moments but sadly there isn't enough conflict generated between the principals to qualify as true art house fare.