Absorbing character study set during the Iraq war

Rating: 10/10 (15 March 2010)

THE HURT LOCKER won the Best Picture Oscar of 2009. It also made history in that Kathryn Bigelow, it's director, became the first female to win the coveted Best Director Oscar. Right off the bat, I have to say that I think she deserved this award. The direction is definitely expert. Bigelow keeps the action at just the right pace and every scene is the right length. There is just the right amount of character exposition also. Actually, not much is revealed about the main characters SSG Will James (Best Actor nominee Jeremy Renner), SGT JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie), and SPC Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty). It is a straightforward tale of men in the most tense combat situations. James, Sanborn, and Eldridge are a 3-man Explosives Ordnance Division (EOD). Their job is to diffuse bombs. James is the EOD expert who did the diffusing and Sanborn and Eldridge were his security and point men.
What struck me most about this film is how tense EVERY scene was! I found even what should have been the most unassuming scene very tension-filled as I realized that these men live on the edge every second of every day. The bomb-diffusing scenes are all very exciting and tension-filled and not just because of the impending doom of a bomb exploding, but due to the unknown factor of whether it is a timed bomb, or if there is a trigger man nearby. Any Iraqi in the vicinity was a suspect and not to be trusted. There is a very tense scene in the middle of the film that ironically has nothing to do with diffusing a bomb, but still is an "action" scene, and I found it to be the most tense, powerful scene of the film.
Renner definitely deserved his Oscar nomination, and perhaps should have won. It's not a showy role at all, but he makes the most of it. He plays the role very close to the vest. He simply IS SFC Will James, a man who is perhaps TOO good at what he does to the point that he gets lost in it sometimes and forgets others around him, due to the gravity of what he does. He kind of comes off as a modern cowboy and a wild man of sorts. He gets a rush out of what he does and then tops it all off at the end of the day with a smoke and a drink and doesn't get phased or let his emotions get in the way of his mission.
Mackie (as Sanborn) and Geraghty (as Eldgridge) are very solid in their roles also and are given their moments to shine as well. Eldridge suffers from immense stress as he must interact with the camp psychiatrist Lt. Col Cambridge (a solid, straight-laced Christian Camargo) on a daily basis when he comes back to the rear. Geraghty gets to play a very emotional scene early in the film where Eldgridge recounts the opening film scene where one choice by him could have made the difference between life and death. Sanborn is a by-the-numbers grunt who just wants to get the job done with a minimum of fuss; while at first he kind of resents and dislikes James, through the course of the film, he gains a healthy respect for James's professionalism, bravery, and leadership skills. The last scene between Mackie and Renner late in the film in the Humvee is extremely provocative and powerful as each man essentially reveals what the war has done to them.
The film also has 3 big-name cameos in Guy Pearce, David Morse, and Ralph Fiennes in small, but pivotal roles and these actors do a great job with their small parts.
The original screenplay (by Mark Boal)also won an Oscar and I think it deserved it as well. While the dialogue is nothing new, it is very realistic and convincing and there are actually moments of legitimate humor at the most perfect times that comes out of it. This actually seems like the way that these guys would interact and talk to each other. The focus is strictly on these 3 men, especially James, so this is much more of a tight character study than a treatise on war, although it definitely makes a powerful statement about what combat does to a soldier.
I find most of today's war films somewhat overrated. Seems like they either try to do too much with a lot of hard to follow action, heavy breathing, and shaky camera movement (like BLACKHAWK DOWN) or they are extremely downbeat and underdone (like JARHEAD). But THE HURT LOCKER manages to avoid these clichés and essentially be honest and truthful about the way men would act. Again, it's not about the Iraq war...It's about men at war.
The film itself is not even really a commentary on the war in Iraq. It just shows us what these men go through in their day-to-day grind, but it doesn't pontificate and become preachy. The film moves in one direction and doesn't stall at any point to become boring. THE HURT LOCKER is a superb character driven drama with immensely tense and riveting situations that just happen to take place in the Iraq war.