A refreshingly thrilling and exhilarating experience from start to finish

Rating: 8/10 (17 December 2009)

While some movies are immediately forgotten moments after watching them, I can still remember the feeling during and after seeing The Hurt Locker four months later. It is being hailed now as one of the best films of the year, and it deserves every accolade it is given. The film follows a bomb defusing unit in Iraq, lead by the adrenaline junkie and borderline-insane Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) and including Sergeant JT. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty), and their trials and tribulations during their tour of duty.
While films about or involving the Iraq war are a hard sell, and make for rather pitiful films, The Hurt Locker is something of an anomaly. It deals with the war head-on, and manages to be a riveting thriller from start to finish. This is the most realistic and disturbing film to come out of this conflict thus far, and it shows in how well made it is. It borders on feeling like a documentary on the real men and women in bomb squad units in more than a few instances. It knows exactly what beats to strike, what buttons to push and what emotional chords need to be yanked at. It is a hard film to swallow, and never winces even at the most intense of times. It merely packs on more hard-edged realism.
Kathryn Bigelow is not necessarily the first director you would imagine taking on such a heavy topic as this in a film (her previous films include K-19: The Widowmaker, Strange Days, and the much beloved action film, Point Break), but she proves to be the most capable filmmaker to have attacked it thus far. Her interpretation of one of the most controversial moments and ideas of the decade is one that is unlike anything you could even attempt to imagine. She captures the terror and horror of war so well that she seems more than well versed in the subject. Her research and passion for the project is more than simply evident from moment one.
The editing of the film is what really makes the film as powerful as it is. Music is used very sparingly scene to scene. Moments of silence are compounded by the ticking of bombs, and the clipping of pliers. We hear the unit's every breath, and feel their sweat. We are in the desert with them, feeling their every move and thought as they have them. Their fear and caution are downright terrifying, because we as an audience are so heavily invested in what happens to this small team. We do not want to see anything bad happen to them, but as the film shows us on multiple occasions, no one is safe from injury or death on the battlefield.
What also helps the film is the relatively unknown cast. The three principal actors are recognizable supporting characters from many films and TV series' over the past decade, but none have them have really carried a film like they do here. Because we are not watching the likes of a Brad Pitt or a Will Smith, our investment and believability in these actors is heightened. How are we able to distinguish between an actor inhabiting a role of a soldier in combat, and an actual soldier in combat, when each of these actors just seem so immersed and buried within their roles? They each have their own arch in the film, and each manages to breathe a life into their characters that no other actor has been able to do thus far.
Renner is the particular standout of the bunch because he is both the lead, and the character with the most emphasis placed on him. He carries the film, and makes you genuinely believe in it. All of the heartbreak, the sorrow, and the triumph this character faces, Renner makes feel unparallelled. He is not exactly method acting like Marlon Brando would, but he looks like he is coming close to it. He is just that well versed and professional in this role. And only compliments his two supporting cast members.
Interesting small roles from Guy Pearce, David Morse and Voldemort himself, Ralph Fiennes, are all handed well. Each brings a unique piece to the film that gives it more depth, and allows the audience to wrap onto someone they may recognize a bit better. These critically acclaimed character actors almost act like they are passing the torch on to the younger actors, to give them a chance to really make something of their film careers as they move onto their next generation of acting roles.
If the film falters at all, it is in a humanizing subplot between Renner's character James and a young Iraqi boy nicknamed Beckham (Christopher Sayegh). It is meant to show that James is not a total whack job who spends his day knocking on death's door, but there are more than enough scenes and exchanges between the principal actors that these scenes are unneeded. Yes, the subplot does give us one of the most truly horrific and emotional scenes in the entire film, but this scene is not enough to make up for how dragged out the film becomes with the addition of the subplot. It easily could have worked much the same way without it, even if it does help break up how monotonous the bomb defusing becomes at times (as realistic and pulse pounding as it is).
The Hurt Locker is the best film about the Iraq war currently, and is just a great war film in general. Not only that, it is also one of the best films of the year. It is a thrilling and exhilarating experience from start to finish that may be a test of endurance for more than a few people. But that experience is more than just rewarding.
8.5/10.