At first it was to be all you could be, then war was hell, now it's a drug. But one thing we can all agree on: War is scary as Hell

Rating: 10/10 (12 February 2010)

"The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug."
A few months ago I had heard a little bit about The Hurt Locker, a lot of critics were bragging about how great this movie was, so I was kind of curious to see what it was about, but I couldn't find any local theaters that were playing the movie, so I had to wait it out for the rental. Without really knowing what the story was about, all I knew was it was an Iraq film. With a lot of war movies, I'm always concerned that it's more government propaganda to get us to say "Oh, my God, what those soldiers go through; I wanna help". But Kim Bigelow, everything that has been said about her has been taken out of my mouth. I didn't know that there was a female that was capable of creating such suspense and realism, she's absolutely incredible. I thought if not for the big names, that she cleverly puts in supporting roles, this movie was the actual war and Kim was just shooting what was going on in Iraq during these frightful times to be a soldier as well as a human being.
During the early stages of the post-invasion period in Iraq in 2004, Sergeant First Class William James becomes the team leader of an EOD unit with the U.S. Army's Bravo Company, replacing Staff Sergeant Thompson, who was killed by a remote-detonated IED in Baghdad. He joins Sergeant J.T. Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge, whose jobs are to communicate with their team leader via radio inside his bombsuit, and provide him with rifle cover while he examines IEDs. During their first mission together, James's insistence on approaching a suspected IED without first sending in a bomb disposal robot leads Sanborn and Eldridge to consider him reckless. Being in a country where everyone is a possible enemy and the young men are almost expecting to die on a daily basis, it's hard not to say that war is Hell, but that the passion they have for what they do in this war is not only admirable but crazy.
The Hurt Locker is a great film in the way it was made and told. To see these men on their journey throughout Iraq was so depressing and intense, but very believable. Wither you like the character or not, they were very real and Anthony Mackie stole the show in my opinion. You could really sense his dedication but also his worry on a constant basis if the day he wakes up is his last with this country. His chemistry with Jeremy Renner was dead on, the last scene between them made me cry and just broke my heart to see these two young men risking everything they have to wonder if it's crazy or that maybe this was fate and to be apart of something exciting as not many people to get to fight in a war. The Hurt Locker is one of the best films of the year, realism aside, it provides a new look into the terrifying life of these brave young men. I loved that Kim used the big names into supporting roles, because if she had used them for the bigger roles, it would have taken away from the film. She was a great choice for the film to direct and the actors were just terrific. The setting, the dialog, the story, everything about this film is done to perfection and will be remembered for years to come.
10/10