The Hurt Locker

Rating: 8/10 (12 September 2010)

Oscar and BAFTA winning, and Golden Globe nominated Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break) became the first woman in history to finally win the Academy Award for Best Direction, and a deserved win it was with this traditionally male-dominated genre. Basically, set in the last thirty-eight days of the post-invasion of Iraq in 2004, Sergeant First Class William James (28 Weeks Later's Oscar and BAFTA nominated Jeremy Renner) has become the new leader of the U.S. Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team. After the opening sequence with original leader Staff Sergeant Matt Thompson (Memento's Guy Pearce), he joins Sergeant JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) in the Bravo Company in Baghdad. It becomes apparent quite quickly that James doesn't stick to the usual bomb disposal rules, he is a renegade who has thrills himself on both war and danger, regardless for his or others' safety. Sanborn is by the books and trusts others to do as well as him, and Eldridge is insecure constantly worried about making errors that will lead to innocent peoples' deaths, and they can't always see eye to eye with James. Throughout the film James doesn't always think about which wires to cut, he takes off his protection gear, and he helps Sanborn and Edridge kill some enemy soldiers after they killed one or two British soldiers led by Contractor Team Leader (Ralph Fiennes). There are the low moments though, such as finding child Beckham (Christopher Sayegh) dead and with bombs inside him, and James fails to save a man with bombs strapped to him, and he explodes. Eventually the thirty-eight days have passed, Eldridge goes home after being shot in the leg by James, and Sanborn confesses he can't deal with explosive devices disposal anymore, and after a quick reunion with wife Connie (Lost's Evangeline Lilly) and his son, James is back in the war zone for the Delta Company still in bomb disposal. Also starring The Green Mile's David Morse as Colonel Reed and Christian Camargo as Colonel John Cambridge. Bigelow is a perfect director for this film, she has often succeeded in creating the equivalent of a male-driven film in her career. With good casting, even brief appearances by Pearce and Fiennes, and good tense moments without going into red wire/blue wire clichés and political preaching, this is a much more realistic and fantastic wartime action thriller drama. It won the Oscars for Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Sound Editing and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, and it was nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Music for Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders, it won the BAFTAs for Best Film, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Screenplay and Best Sound, and it was nominated for Best Special Visual Effects, and it was nominated the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Screenplay. Very good!