Taut, exciting, thrilling - one of the year's best

Rating: 8/10 (29 July 2009)

I can now forgive Kathryn Bigelow for making "Strange Days" (1995). Legions love that sci-fi film, but I found it to be an unpleasant experience.
She certainly has redeemed herself with "The Hurt Locker," a taut, thrilling, at times suspenseful film about a group of soldiers who risk their lives trying to defuse Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Iraq. This is a thinking man's action film.
I believe the reason "The Hurt Locker" will do better than the other Iraq War films - 2006's "Home of the Brave" and 2007's "Redacted," "In the Valley of Elah," "The Situation," "Grace Is Gone," "Lions for Lambs" and "Battle for Haditha" - is because you can't quite pinpoint the film's politics. And that tends to go over better with American audiences, who apparently cared not that their government leaders lied to them or didn't wish to be reminded that they were lied to or felt there was too much war saturation on cable news. Also, many of the films so far about the Iraq War haven't been very good, though I do believe "Battle for Haditha" is superb. It's just that next to no one saw Nick Broomfield's wonderful film.
The thing about Bigelow's terrific film is that it really doesn't need to display its politics. I don't have the foggiest idea whether Bigelow supported or disagreed with George W. Bush's invasion and occupation of Iraq, but the filmmaker's take on the war is not needed here. Because this is a film about soldiers who like to stop things from going "Boom!" and you get the feeling that Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) would be just as happy defusing these things in Los Angeles, Des Moines or anywhere else. It just so happens that Iraq is where action is, where he gets his adrenaline rush.
"The Hurt Locker" is a nerve-wracking thriller, held together by a brilliant performance by Renner - he truly deserves a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for this - and some sensationally choreographed sequences. Mark Boal's tight and lean script - he also wrote "In the Valley of Elah," which was a bit more on the preachy side - helps immensely, but Bigelow and editors Chris Innis and Bob Murawski know exactly how to wring the most suspense out of small moments. (Of course, Innis and Murawski had plenty of footage to choose from given that Bigelow chose to shoot four hand-held cameras simultaneously, a strategy that certainly helps actors and works perfectly for this film.)
The best of these moments is a lengthy sequence in the desert involving snipers. I had problems with some moments in this sequence - the gun jamming, Sergeant Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) being unable to hit a stationary target, but then nails the target when the Iraqi is running - but Bigelow turns the screws so slowly that you being feeling as antsy as the soldiers as we see flies land on James and Sanborn as they wait patiently. What makes this scene work is that Bigelow refrains from using any overblown musical score to heighten the tension. Instead, she is smart enough to know - and I wish other action and suspense directors will take a cue from her - that the situation is tense enough and that she can draw the viewer in by calmly prolonging the sequence and preying on our anxiousness to ratchet up the suspense. There's another moment involving an impetuous taxi driver and, here again, Bigelow squeezes every drop of suspense.
Renner's James is at the core of this film. He's cocky, brash and even arrogant, though not in the same way that made some of John Wayne's characters unbelievable. Renner's James has the same sort of bravado Wayne's characters sometimes did, but there's something beautifully authentic about Renner's performance.
He's a terrific actor - thank you ABC for proving you know nothing about good TV and canceling the series, "The Unusuals," in which Renner was awfully good - and you can sense the wheels turning in his head as he balances James' action junkie with the cool precision of a fine craftsman disassembling bombs. There is something creepy about Renner's coolness here. He gets fine supporting performances from Mackie and Brian Geraghty, both of whom try to make sense of this man James as the film is told through their eyes.
The film is not without its flaws. A vigilante moment in a subplot involving a young Iraqi boy who befriends James seemed a superfluous attempt to make him seem more heroic, and there were times I seriously questioned the bombers' motivations or rationale for why they did or didn't do certain things.
"The Hurt Locker" could be viewed by some as a paean to America's derring do spirit. I am not entirely sure that is Bigelow's aim. She and Boal do raise some interesting questions: Yes, these chaps are courageous, but at what price? What is this addiction to this action and what are its consequences?
If you are expecting a wham-bam action film, you will be disappointed. "The Hurt Locker" is essentially a character study set in a war zone. It just happens to be a damn fine character study of obsessive people.
The film opens with Chris Hedges' assertion that war is a drug, an addiction, and then Bigelow goes to prove that point with James. This is his job. Then again, for James, it's not just a job, it is an adventure and watching Renner bring James to life makes you understand his character, though you might not quite appreciate some of the decisions he makes.