Style With Little Substance

Rating: 6/10 (28 July 2009)

With no explanation The Hurt Locker starts off amidst a moment of extraordinary anxiety. A U.S. bomb-squad task force is in the midst of weighing their options. Just a few hundred yards ahead of them on an abandoned Iraqi street lies potential instantaneous death. It is their job to approach it, disarm it, and return to base unscathed. This fear of death looms over the scene. Little noise is heard aside from light dialogue. Although the set is simple, the visuals are a complex blend of real and imagined anxiety. The camera, to great effect, is tremendously shaky. It helps to transport us inside these men's minds. The barren landscapes all appear to be minefields, ridden with a million ways to die, and no expectation of forewarning. Visually, this is without a doubt one of the most immersive war films ever made.
After this first scene we get to meet the characters. After being made to feel each and every nuance of perturbation from their perspective, you'd think that there would be something equally engaging going on under the hood. Unfortunately, with lines of dialogue like, "Every time we go out it's life or death; we roll the dice," the characters we are made to care so much about quickly devolve into shallow stereotypes.
You can read the full review I wrote on The Hurt Locker at http://cfilmc.com/the-hurt-locker/