War gives America something good after all

Rating: 7/10 (12 June 2012)

While involvement in the Middle East has overloaded America with criticism, war has also brought something good to the States: The Hurt Locker. This war film is about a bomb disposal team in Iraq. After Staff Sergeant Matt Thompson (Guy Pearce) had died dismantling a bomb, Sergeant First Class William James has gone to Iraq to replace him. Together with Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty), he forms a 3-man team. While it's James' task to actually dismantle bombs, Eldrigde and Sanborn assist him and cover his back. The major conflict in the film is between James and Sanborn. Sanborn considers James' way of working reckless and irresponsible, while James thinks Sanborn is making a fuss. The tension between them gets so high, that Sanborn openly proposes to Eldridge to kill James. In chasing terrorists who blew up a petrol tanker, Eldridge gets shot in the leg. When he is about to fly back to America, he blames James for his injury. After that, James and Sanborn are confronted with an innocent man with a bomb strapped to his chest. The bomb is about to go off As becomes clear in the first paragraph, The Hurt Locker is a thrilling movie. Some scenes are full of suspense. When bombs are disposed, the smallest mistake can be fatal, thus extreme caution is necessary. The conflicts between the team members and the gunfights make the movie extra stunning. Sometimes the thrill is interrupted by humoristic passages. This deadpan humour is usually used at climax. For example when the trunk of a car is found loaded with explosives and he is about to do the dangerous disposal, James says, taking of his bomb suit: "I'm gonna die. I wanna die comfortable". That is not what the viewer had expected. The Hurt Locker has a very structured plot on one hand, because every new day or scene is indicated by subtitles, which tell you where the main characters are and how many days there are left until they can go home. This gives you a very organized feeling, you know exactly what is going on. On the other hand the film is actually a kind of messy, because sometimes not the whole scene is shown, and questions are created by this. What is happening? Why is this happening? This sometimes causes a little confusion about what exactly happened in the film and that causes you to not fully understand the next scene or part of the movie. The film was set in Jordan just several kilometres away from the Iraqi boundaries which made it a bit more dangerous and more risky, because Iraq does not like America for what happened during the war. Because of this risk the actors might have acted a bit more in a natural way than that they normally would do, they could act that they were scared and looking out for danger more realistically. The different surrounding causes just the right atmosphere; the actors are in a strange environment and they don't know exactly what they can expect. This makes the film and the performance of the actors more real and believable. Another important feature of a film is the characterization. The good thing about the main characters in The Hurt Locker is that they are totally different from one another. For example Sergeant James, who is quite a reckless person, doesn't seem to care about his son and wife at home, while Sergeant Sanborn wants to go home as quickly as possible and wants to return his crew back to the camp safely. We think the fact that these characters collide with each other gives the film a good impression of reality and the way things go in Iraq. This makes that the characters feel like real persons instead of characters. A war movie without sound is like a ship without a rudder. Sound is used more in action movies than every other type of movie, and The Hurt Locker is no exception. The importance of sound was already made clear in the trailer of the movie, where you could hear a clock ticking on the background, which showed that you should have nerves of steel when working in an EOD team. This use of sound was continued in the movie itself, where a lot of explosions and screaming really got you into the movie and made you excited. When people think of action movies they think of a lot of noise. However, in this movie there also is the more quiet sound. It indicates that not much is going on. An example where it was very quiet in the movie is when James has returned home. He is playing with his son and talking about life. The background music is peaceful and quiet. The baby has fun playing with his toys. In this same fragment the sound director also uses one of the most frequently used sound techniques used in movies: the sound bridge. A sound bridge is when sound from the previous scene continues into the next scene or the other way around. Namely, at the end of the scene with his baby you can already hear the helicopters flying over. In conclusion the film 'The Hurt Locker' is a very good film. The setting and plot make that the film is full of suspense and very exciting. The sound builds up the tension you feel as viewer and really drags you into the movie. Also the characters' acting performances are very good. The story is very heavy and impressive, which causes you to sympathize with the characters. The organization of the film however is a bit messy because of some parts being left out, which can cause misunderstandings. Overall, despite the slightly messy plot, the movie is stunning and impressive, which will be remembered for a long time after having seen it.