Desultory, at best

Rating: 5/10 (10 August 2010)

I am very surprised that THE HURT LOCKER won an Academy Award for best picture, which just goes to show, I guess, that I have too much faith in the system! Although this film does manage to create a genuine feeling of suspense and stress in the viewer, repeatedly brought along to participate in the defusing of massively destructive bombs, that is where the value of this depiction of war ends. I appreciate that Bigelow wanted to show what a tough job the grunts on the ground have, while steering clear of overt critiques of this particularly vexed context, an illegal war and occupation which themselves generated the very danger against which soldiers find the need to defend themselves. However, her good intentions aside, I feel that she ended by doing a disservice to the soldiers.
The main protagonist is some sort of Evil Knieval thrill seeker, of questionable sexual orientation--he has no attraction for his wife and tries to "ride" one of his fellow soldiers as a bucking bronco of sorts--I am sorry, but the selection of this character as representative is unfair to the poor slobs who really carry out this dreadful task.
The film has no focus, development or direction, and ends by trying to pretend that instead of being about war in general, or the Iraq occupation in particular, this was really about one sick dude on a serious suicide mission. I won't add to what has been said about the implausibilities, the shaky camera, etc. All in all, this just seems to me like an amateur effort at film-making, sustained by its sole virtue: the ability to scare the pants off the viewer brought in virtual contact with IEDs for the very first time.