A solidly made modern war film

Rating: 8/10 (7 February 2015)

THE HURT LOCKER is a tense but emotionally distant war film from director Kathryn Bigelow, and starring Jeremy Renner. It follows an Army bomb disposal unit around as they do their job in war-torn Iraq. Unlike most war films it doesn't really take a stance on whether or not we should even be there, instead focusing on the psychology of warfare and what it does to the human mind. I thought that this approach mostly worked, although it kept the audience at a certain distance emotionally from the characters. The main character is played by Jeremy Renner, and he is the sergeant in charge of the unit. He is brash, reckless and one could almost say he has a death wish. What is closer to the truth is that he just loves what he does, and the thrill he gets from doing it. Also in his unit are another sergeant and a specialist played by Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty, respectively. They serve as counterpoint to Renner's character, and as a rational check against his unbridled nature. While most of the film deals with their bomb-defusing exploits, there are some moments when the true ugliness of the Iraq War shows its face, such as a tense nighttime scene in which Renner's character stalks someone he thinks is responsible for the death of a young street vendor he met. He ends up in the wrong place and just leaves before the situation escalates. It is in moments like that where the film hints at a possibly deeper reading of the film in terms of whether we should have even been in Iraq in the first place. That being said, the film is well-acted by everyone involved and the hand-held cinematography worked in its favor, putting the viewer into the heat of the situations that arose. I guess my biggest gripe would be that it never explicitly challenges American presence in Iraq, but it's not necessarily a film's job to do that for you. With what it portrayed, and who the main character was, it still allows you to draw your own conclusions. For one, it must take a special someone to be a bomb disposal expert. And also, not everyone is cut out for combat. Overall, THE HURT LOCKER is a solid piece of filmmaking and an interesting look into modern warfare.