Why You Should See This

Rating: 9/10 (18 August 2009)

A few years ago, I decided I would never watch a movie about the war in Iraq. I am still not sure why, maybe because the few that were made had a definite political viewpoint...and everybody knows from which side that point of view comes. Post Vietnam war films, with the exception of World War II movies, had to be filmed through either a cynical filter or with the simplistic energy of the revisionist. So the filmmakers all jump on eagerly at the Stone/Platoon template ...you know, the one that portrays most American soldiers as loud psychotics eager to commit an atrocity at the first opportunity.
I decided to see "The Hurt Locker" based on a couple of reviews I read. I decided not to look at a trailer but to see it cold. In this era of 150 million dollar budgets, special effects driven stories and standardized scripts, watching this movie was like taking a step back in time, maybe to the '60s. The low budget filmmakers then, like the producers of the Hurt Locker, had balls...no patterns here, no obvious viewpoint...this is as good as the greatest war films of the past, no matter what the budget.
There is some criticism on this site about the technical inaccuracies. I salute their observations. But the small or even obvious mistakes don't distract from this masterpiece. It's hot, dangerous, stress filled, glaring and believable. I've never seen Jeremy Renner before, but his performance is the highlight of a years' movie-going experience. I also liked seeing Guy Pearce and especially David Morse in small but hard-hitting roles.