Decent film getting a lot of flack for inaccuracies

Rating: 8/10 (16 February 2010)

This movie was not bad at all. I guess what helped is that I didn't go into it expecting an accurate depiction of life as an EOD tech. There were definitely scenes that seemed unbelievable. The one that stands out the most was the 'car on fire' scene. And there were others that left you asking 'is this really how things are done?' Specifically... why disarm vs. blow an IED up in place? And there's the minute specifics which nobody outside the military, myself included, would ever notice. Badges, hardware, etc, etc.
Seems most of the criticism on IMDb is rightfully coming from vets of the Iraq/Afgan wars. But I don't think the filmmakers intended on everyone focusing so much and on the factual inaccuracies of the movie. I believe their intent was to follow what was going on in the main character's head. They began the film with the 'war is a drug' quote. Just about everything that James did in the entire movie revolved around that quote. If the filmmakers had depicted exact military protocol in the film, they would not have succeeded in doing what they wanted to do. They portrayed James as a loose canon who was very good at what he wanted to do, which they would have had much trouble doing if they didn't take the liberties they did. Had they done otherwise, he would have been discharged about 20 minutes into the movie and the credits would have rolled.
The impressions I first got about James was that he was either so desensitized to everything around him that he foolishly believed he was invincible, or that he was genuinely nihilistic and didn't care if he died. The nihilist feeling never left. He did what he did well, but didn't seem to care if his next move killed him. Another sense I got was the video game aspect of the whole thing. It's as if he was playing things out in real life as if it were a game. He didn't recognize any potential personal loss, and rarely looked at the effects his behavior had on others in his group, hence his willingness to do whatever he wanted. The only time he seemed emotionally distressed was when he found the body of the young boy. As if he had a momentary pause where he realized it wasn't a game and people suffered. But he eventually snapped out of it and was back to his normal self. When he was trying to get the bomb jacket off of the man and couldn't, he offered a few apologies and started to run once he realized he couldn't win this phase of the game. He didn't seem too emotionally distraught immediately afterward.
And there's the final scenes of the movie where he pretty much admits in front of his very young son that he doesn't love anything but the game itself. Not his wife or even his son. And the scene that followed with him marching down a road in his bomb suit reinforced the whole video game thing. It looked perfectly like a video game scene with him centered in the road and a horde of soldiers and their vehicles slowly following.
All said and done, it was a good movie despite it's shortcomings in the accuracy dept. And let's not forget it was an indie flick that was initially released to DVD abroad. Not bad at all.