A Unique Character Study of Modern Warfare

Rating: 8/10 (15 February 2010)

Most of the war films I have seen are meant to demonstrate the mental and physical horrors of warfare such as Paths of Glory, Apocalypse Now, and Saving Private Ryan. Although Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker shares this characteristic, it also shows how soldiers can become addicted to war. This was surprising to me, in that I was expecting a movie about the faults of the war in Iraq. Instead, The Hurt Locker serves more as a character study about a soldier who feeds off the adrenaline rush during the process of defusing bombs and how his team reacts to his gallant personality.
I get nervous over taking an important test or going to a job interview, so I can't even imagine the state I would be in if I had a job defusing bombs in Iraq. The idea that one wrong move might blow up myself and my team would be much more than I could handle. The Hurt Locker does a fantastic job of showing the kind of personality a soldier must have in order to succeed in dismantling bombs. The story revolves around Sergeant First Class William James (Jeremy Renner), a bomb diffuser who remains calm during almost any crisis. Though he is certainly the best at what he does, the Sergeant's reckless personality causes the rest of the bomb squad to worry. Understandably the team does not want to die with only a month left in their tour, and it appears that James does not have a care in the world whether they live or die. However, as the squad continues to go on missions, the rest of the team soon discovers that there is more to James' personality than meets the eye. He may be reckless with his own life, but this allows him to put the lives of the rest of his squad over his own.
What separates The Hurt Locker from other war movies is that it demonstrates how fighting for one's country can be appealing to people with certain personality types. Through watching James dismantle bombs throughout the film, I gained more respect for those soldiers who love the thrill of knowing that life could be over at any second. In many ways I wish I was like that. Being unafraid (or at least appearing so) of death is a luxury that most people do not have and in many ways I admire the courage it must take to face death with a big smile on your face.
The Hurt Locker feels like a documentary in many ways, partially because it represents an actual war (Iraq). However, I think the main reason why it feels so realistic is the characters are believable. I don't know if The Hurt Locker is based on a true story, but I am almost certain that there are people similar to the characters played by the three leads. Bigelow does a great job of capturing the environment of Iraq. The townspeople look on with confusion, there are destroyed cars along the road, and the buildings all look like they have gone through an earthquake. I almost felt as if I was watching the news, except The Hurt Locker is much more entertaining and thought-provoking.
Overall, The Hurt Locker is the best war film I have seen since Black Hawk Down. It is suspenseful, action-packed, thoughtful, and contains one of the best lead characters in recent memory. I believe The Hurt Locker will go down as a modern classic and a film that demonstrates a different side of war.