Hard to watch - easy to recommend.

Rating: 8/10 (7 November 2010)

I know two things about director Kathryn Bigelow.
1/ She made Near Dark, a vampire classic that has unfortunately dated just a wee bit since it's 80s release.
2/ She made Point Break, a fact I only was reminded of with the passing of star Patrick Swayze. Point Break was a bizarrely over the top yet entertaining 80s movie.
That's it, two films both made in the 80s. Both rarely mentioned but at the very least thought of in generally positive terms when they were.
Now she has made a totally different movie, one I had also never heard of until it was mentioned in an online column as being a great film, and it actually is.
Bigelow should either make more movies - or get a better agent... Either that or comparisons to Deuce Bigalow have killed her name in the industry.
The Hurt Locker is a film that follows a unit of explosive disposal experts through Baghdad, where booby traps and mines are plentiful, and spread randomly about the place to kill soldier or Iraqi with seemingly no care as to who is the victim.
The opening scene neatly encapsulates the film: It is nearly 9 minutes of building suspense, is never tacky or showy, and creates real characters that are in constant peril. It also shows that this will be a movie with no favourites as Guy Pearce makes sure he won't be in Hurt Locker 2.
It seems in The Hurt Locker, the more famous and known you are as an actor, the sooner you will be killed.
The replacement for Pearce is Will, he is gung-ho and reckless but apparently always gets the job done. This is a shock to the system of the remainder of the team who were by the book, diligent and careful.
Sanborne is the personification all of those things, and he sees himself and his other partner Eldridge, a younger soldier who is almost the team dogsbody, as being put at risk by Will's carefree attitude.
Without going into detail the film follows the team through various events that occur over their tour, all of which are hazardous due to the key role they play.
Each event is allowed to play out in real time, and each participant, and their reactions and thoughts, are shown as the pressure builds. The viewer also feels the pinch, as the tense scenes are allowed to build, and there are long stretches with little or no dialogue.
Oh, and of course being bomb disposal guys they are almost always near a live bomb which may or may not go off at any time.
It seems Will has some sort of death wish, which he explains as "well if the bomb does go off, I'm toast anyway", though there are times when the three are off duty and letting off steam when reality kicks in and we learn more about his background.
This is the kind of film that even with the large explosions that happen periodically is not a boom-boom bang-bang A Team affair with stuntmen bouncing off unseen trampolines and cigar chomping boneheads spitting witty dialogue in between narrowly cheating death yet again.
This is a realistic film showing three guys in ultra-high pressure roles as they strive to get through each day on the job, and also how they deal with it once they do. You actually care about the soldiers, even when they are being d*cks, and feel real concern as they go about their business.
You don't want them to die. But being a film about real life people in conflict, you always know that there is the chance that they will. If that is what Ms Bigelow set out to achieve then she succeeded.
If nothing else you get far more appreciation of what soldiers go through daily in what is largely thought of as a "kiddie's war" than you would in 100 Arnie or Stallone shoot-em-ups.
Not a happy film, not a big action film, just one that deserves to be watched by a far wider audience.
Final Rating – 8.5 / 10. Hard to watch, easy to recommend.
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