Not another war movie

Rating: 8/10 (23 February 2010)

Kathryn Bigelow, along with journalist screen writer Mark Boal, brings to us a gripping action war drama about a bomb disposal squad in Iraq, Hurt Locker. I have never been a big fan of war movies, especially the ones which celebrate the sacrifice of a soldier for his country and portray him as brain-washed nationalist.
However, that is where Hurt Locker is different from most of the war movies made. It is a story of three soldiers who have different perspective of war. For Sgt. "Specialist" Eldridge, war is a killing machine which takes life of a soldier in an instant. For Sgt. Sanborn, war is another of his assignments and he is as professional as a soldier can be, except for one scene. Sgt. William James is the leader of this little team which goes around Iraq in a Hummer disposing bombs. He is without a doubt one of the most compellingly complex characters I have ever seen in a war movie.
He is a cigarette smoking, death metal listening, punk who is a very unprofessional soldier which is the cause of some friction between him and his team. He is also a very friendly, unselfish human who is in the war just because he loves disposing bombs more than his wife and child. Hurt Locker is a series of beautifully shot experiences of this team of soldiers with war ridden streets and buildings of 21st century Iraq as a backdrop. It takes us audience through such an intense and chilling ride, we feel like we are the 4th member of the squad.
Hurt Locker is completely an apolitical movie which does not have any anti or pro-war message and with a documentary feel to it like District 9. It tells the story of a small team of soldiers in Iraq during the last 40 days of their rotation. It is definitely not the best film of the year or the best war movie of this decade. But it will definitely be the war movie which will have redefined the genre of 'war action' movies. I hope it will be 'Silence of the lambs' of all thriller movies, 'The Shining' of all horror movies, 'Chariots of Fire' of sports movies, 'The Dark Knight' of Comic book movies, 'The Toy Story' of animated movies, 'The Inglourious Basterds' of fictional history. Although, there have been better war dramas which portray war from the eyes of a soldier (A Thin Red Line) or plight of the oppressed (Schindler's List), it is refreshing to see an action war movie which does not celebrate jingoism(Saving Private Ryan) or preach hippie anti-war propaganda. I felt the same way about this movie I felt after watching District 9. It has been a long time which I saw a good and different war(sci-fi) movie. Alas, I feel this and Inglourious basterds would be snuffed come night.