Phenomenal phlick

Rating: 9/10 (9 September 2008)

Saw this last night at TIFF and followed with a "Mavericks" chat with Bigelow tonight. It flips between quiet, drawn out tension and moments of sheer insanity. It skips most of the navel gazing and ... as someone else has already said ... is filmed in a straight-up fictional documentary way that lets you draw your own conclusions without force feeding anything to you.
Special note on the music and sound editing - phenomenal. I'm sure that was a big reason I was completely wired at the end of the movie (it was the 3rd of the day at TIFF, and probably helped me stay awake for the last one).
Another great effort by Bigelow. And I'd never heard of the 3 leads but was glad they went with no-names to tell the story of everyday hero soldiers. Was also nice to be spared the obvious "why are we there ... which idiot sent us here?" questions (cuz yeah... you don't need a movie to find those answers).