Immersive, exhilarating war movie - truly terrific stuff.

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2014)

A stunning war film which reflects on the 'drug of war' – that is, the addiction that some soldiers develop towards living on the edge in a combat situation – The Hurt Locker is intense, dynamic and brilliantly handled. Scripter Mark Boal, director Kathryn Bigelow and editors Chris Innis and Bob Murawski aim for a 'high-anxiety' approach, making virtually every moment of the film raw and visceral. The potential for one of the characters to be blown to smithereens at any given moment hangs over the story throughout, generating non-stop tension. Shot in Jordan, sometimes on locations less than three miles from the Iraq border, the film creates a very immersive and authentic view of the situation in Iraq. Barry Ackroyd's cinematography has a documentary-like feel, using multiple angles to capture the immediacy of the moment. The boiling tension, the paranoia and fear of imminent death, the irrational suspicion that everyone around might be a potential enemy – it's all here, perfectly captured and tapped into with relentless skill for maximum suspense.
The story opens with Staff Sergeant Matthew Thompson (Guy Pearce) attempting to defuse an explosive device in a busy Baghdad street. His attempt fails and he is killed when the bomb is triggered by remote control. We then learn that Bravo Company have 38 days left in Iraq before they can go home. Thompson's surviving team members – Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) – are given a new team leader to work alongside for the remainder of their rotation. The new man is experienced battle veteran and bomb disposal expert Sergeant First Class William James (Jeremy Renner). The story occasionally 'catches up' with James, Sanborn and Eldridge during selected days of their remaining time in Iraq. It is immediately obvious that there is tension within the team, since James is incredibly reckless as an individual, and frequently risks the life of his comrades in his pursuit of a combat situation 'rush'. Their experiences include defusing several bombs; running into a team of private mercenaries and assisting them in a lengthy gun battle; discovering a warehouse where a child has been mutilated and had a bomb surgically implanted in his chest; and trying to save an Iraqi civilian who has multiple timed explosives padlocked all over his body.
By casting several then-unknown actors as the main characters, Bigelow generates huge tension. We see early on the expected 'stars' of the film (like Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes) being killed off relatively soon into their roles, so it becomes very hard to anticipate how, if at all, the more unfamiliar faces will make it to the end of the movie. Renner is especially fine in his role as the maverick life-gambler for whom war is everything – he's far from likable, and can be a real a-hole at times, but seems a remarkably real character one that is genuinely multi-dimensional and true to his own inner workings. What The Hurt Locker achieves above all else is that rarest of combinations in modern- day cinema – intense action and brains. You come away from The Hurt Locker caring, feeling and thinking about what you've seen very much indeed. What must it be like as a soldier serving in such a hostile, alien environment? What must it be like being native to a country and having foreign soldiers armed to the teeth walking down your street? How can you trust anyone when the stakes are so high? Yet how could you live with a mistake if you failed to trust someone you should have? How would you handle being so near to potential death day in, day out? Does the film make you long for the 'drug of war' or desperately afraid of it? Put simply, The Hurt Locker is a masterpiece.