Tension, rash sensationalism and irrelevant scenes spell winning combination for Bigelow... and angers GIs

Rating: 3/10 (25 April 2010)

For a film that has won 6 Oscars, 73 other awards and had 47 other nominations for its realistic portrayal of an EOD team stationed in Iraq, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is the most outrageously hypocritical Hollywood Hokum produced in the past decade.
Not only does The Hurt Locker frequently insult the intelligence of the viewer with its extreme sensationalism, but also insults the intelligence of GI's and even – somehow - terrorists.
The insult to Iraqi civilians is more complex. For the majority of the movie the civilians are totally ignored, until only one character in the entire film even bothers to talk to one, purely because the civilian was selling him porn.
Sure the film had a dash of tension, but in a world where each critically acclaimed movie has to have in-depth plot twists, stunning cinematography and character exposes, the film gets you wondering: How the hell did it win so many awards??
The answer is simple: The Hurt Locker is Pro-American. In a time when the Iraq war is criticised, the Global recession has hit and America is losing what it values most, and when there's a perceived stereotype from the rest of the world that most Americans are far less intelligent than anyone on the planet, The Hurt Locker provides only one clear message: "America, You're Doing a Good Job".
Kathryn Bigelow accomplishes in ignoring all chances she had to make the film intellectual and engaging on any level by not mentioning any of the issues surrounding the war, looking only at neurotic, alcoholic Staff Sergeant William James' (Renner) and his EOD team's experience in Iraq.
How the team never even thought about why they were there or have any interaction with Iraqi civilians outside of those trying to blow them up – with the exception of a 10 year old boy who sells the team leader porn - is beyond comprehension.
The responses posted on the internet have been incredibly diverse; on the one hand, there's the general American population, who's elated – in the wake of movies such as The Green Zone, We Three Kings and Body of Lies - to see an Iraq war movie where they're not perceived as screwing everything up, but on the other hand is the response given by genuine American soldiers and veterans.
The film, which Hollywood has praised for its 'realistic' portrayal of an 'authentic' Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team stationed in Iraq, has been shunned by a large number of American troops for its blatant inaccuracies.
One soldier stated in an online interview "It was terribly fake and I couldn't stand how stupid it made the army look. I didn't like it. I thought it was just so inaccurate and fake... I'm just very judgmental when it comes to military movies because it's my job."
Private Sean Hartley, who served in Baghdad between the years of 2004 and 2006, was equally appalled by the film's inaccuracies. "It was incredibly disrespectful to EOD soldiers, who are portrayed as adrenaline-addicted crazies, but in real life are extremely qualified professionals doing an insanely difficult job."
Another soldier, Sgt. Eric Gordon, was less offended by the movie, but still views the films attempted realism as ludicrous. "I would watch it with other EOD people, and we would laugh"
He especially found a scene where a bomb was defused with wire cutters ridiculous, likening it to "a fire-fighter going into a building with a squirt bottle".
The Hurt Locker itself is intended to be an expose on the effect of the delirium of war and the addicting head-rush that being in an EOD team can have on the male psyche. However, it fails to achieve its purpose as the characters are so dull, emotionally thin and unrealistic they might as well have been cast straight from 'Twilight'. In fact, even 'Twilight' had better character development.
James' team-members, hard-nosed Sanborn (Mackie) and green, anxiety- prone Eldridge (Geraghty) offer no psychological or emotional support for James as they're too stereotypical to develop themselves, leading to an anti-climatic ending where everyone is where they started out - minus a leg for Eldridge.
So if you know absolutely nothing about how modern warfare or the military works, then you might find The Hurt Locker bearable. If not, the dull characters and their ludicrously un-GI actions brought on by this hideous Hollywood Hokum will leave you awestruck as to how the film has received any awards at all - just as it has for countless American troops.