If I'm going to die, I'm going to die comfortable" - A near-perfect movie

Rating: 8/10 (10 June 2014)

The Hurt Locker, premiering on the 4th of September 2008, tells the intense and unique story of Sergeant First Class William James, team leader of a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit. Set in the Iraqi War, much of the scenery is covered with dust, sand and isolation. William James is introduced to the team, consisting of Sergeant J.T. Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge, after their former team leader, Staff Sergeant Matthew Thompson, liquefies in his bomb suit after the detonation of an improvised explosive device (IED) along the road in Baghdad.
The unconventional death of one of the main characters in the first few minutes of the story symbolises the nature of this movie: viewers are dragged into a movie that depicts a side of war that is not often shown. Instead of focussing on flashy action, bullets flying everywhere and enormous guns, Kathryn Bigelow, the director, takes a much more subtle approach, which was frowned upon by some critics, but heavily appreciated by us. We did not expect such a thought-provoking, tense and sophisticated movie.
One of the first aspects that caught our attention was the personal development of characters during the story. Unlike your average war movie characters, the personalities in The Hurt Locker actually develop: they're actually influenced and consequently changed by actions that happen in the movie. We won't spoil too much, but for example Eldridge battles depression in the movie due to the loss of some of his closest companions. William James has his own demons as well, as we will discover in the movie.
This leads to one of the few disappointments we experienced while watching this movie. At times, the amount of exposition, e.g. background information, can be a bit overwhelming. We felt that a bit too much of the screen time was used up giving the viewer extra information about backgrounds and personal history of the characters. Although this did contribute to the personification and identification of the viewer with the characters, we felt that the exposition time could have been shortened somewhat.
In contrast, the tension in the action scenes was almost tangible. This movie contains a vast amount of scenes that show a 'lack of action', rather than the overly-used 'run and gun' type of action we commonly find in war movies. Tension is not reached by the use of extravagantly big guns and loads of enemies, but rather by the slow, creepy feeling that forms inside the viewer's brain whilst watching William James carefully approach a bomb that could potentially kill him and all his squad members. Even during a heavy gunfight scene, halfway through the movie, tension is build up by the expectations of the viewer, which are carefully guided by the movie using different techniques. During this scene, a 'sniper duel' takes place: not a big shootout, just two snipers and their helpers patiently waiting to take the perfect shot, knowing that if they're even a split second later than their opponent, they'll probably end up in a body bag.
One of those techniques that are used to guide the expectations of the user, is the impressive use of sound in this movie. Personally, we weren't aware of the contribution of sound to this movie until we watched it again. We thus recommend you to watch the movie again and pause it sometimes during the scenes that are filled with tension, e.g. when Owen Eldridge notices a suspicious man with a mobile phone at the beginning of the movie. When the viewer is pointed to the use of sound and starts recognising when it enters a scene, it will become much clearer how sophisticated this movie actually is: the extraordinary soundtrack heavily influences the mood of a scene. This movie would be mediocre at best if it hadn't been for the exceptional soundtrack.
To further investigate the use of sound in the movie, we divide all the sound into two categories: diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. Every type of sound that could be heard in a situation, were the movie 'real', is considered diegetic, for example conversation, ringing mobile phones and explosions. Every other type of sound, which has been added later to the movie and doesn't actually fit with the situation, is called non- diegetic.
Typically, this movie will first heavily rely on non-diegetic sound mixed with (diegetic) conversation, as can be heard in different scenes when an IED is approached. The non-diegetic sound is thus used to build the tension: long, sinister tones add to the suspension in the scene. The scene can then go two ways: either the bomb is disarmed, the non- diegetic sound dies out and diegetic conversation fills the scene, or the bomb explodes, the non-diegetic sound stops abruptly and the devastating diegetic sound of an explosion can be heard. However, only if the viewer pays very close attention, this switch between diegetic and non-diegetic sound can be heard: it is near-perfectly glued together, which greatly adds to the experience of the viewer.
Taking into account the absolutely astonishing soundtrack, the unconventional way the movie is conveyed and the overly large exposition, we are generally very positive about this movie. It should be noted that the trailer did not fit the movie, in our opinion. The trailer shows lots of action, explosions and one-liners, and even though all of these things are included in the movie, the overall mood of the movie is completely different. The movie is definitely not perfect, but it's still a very good, though-provoking, sophisticated movie, and thus earns our eight out of ten stars.