"Hurt Locker" Compelled Our Participation.

Rating: Null/10 (2 February 2010)

My partner and I have been viewing movies generated by Hollywood for the past few years following America's invasion of Iraq in 2003, and most of them have fallen short of creating the immediacy, the verisimilitude and the total belief that art is imitating reality. Not so with Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker," which steadily builds in believability, suspense and urgency.
The fact that three very well known actors appear in what are essentially cameo roles is surprising. The fact that all three immediately command the screen in just a few minutes is stunning.
"The Hurt Locker" is a buddy movie with a maverick buddy, a soldier whose adrenalin throbs only when he is thrusting himself into dangers the average person would cringe from even thinking about---and yet he is helpless when it comes to functioning in domesticity. The central protagonist is the point man not for isolationism, but rather, for minding our own business and recognizing that direct military intervention wreaks havoc.