The Hurt Locker [Blu-ray]
The making of honest action movies has become so rare that Kathryn Bigelow’s magnificent The Hurt Locker was shown mostly in art cinemas rather than multiplexes. That’s fine; the picture is a work of art. But it also delivers more kinetic excitement, more breath-bating suspense, more putting-you-right-there in the danger zone than all the brain-dead, visually incoherent wrecking derbies hogging mall screens. Partly it’s a matter of subject. The movie focuses on an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, the guys whose more or less daily job is to disarm the homemade bombs that have accounted for most U.S. casualties in Iraq. But even more, the film’s extraordinary tension derives from the precision and intelligence of Bigelow’s direction. She gets every sweaty detail and tactical nuance in the close-up confrontation of man and bomb, while keeping us alert to the volatile wraparound reality of an ineluctably foreign environment–hot streets and blank-walled buildings full of onlookers, some merely curious and some hostile, perhaps thumbing a cellphone that could become a trigger. This is exemplary moviemaking. You don’t need CGI, just a human eye, and the imagination to realize that, say, the sight of dust and scale popped off a derelict car by an explosion half a block away delivers more shock value than a pixelated fireball.
The setting may be Iraq in 2004, but it could just as well be Thermopylae; The Hurt Locker is no “Iraq War movie.” Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal–who did time as a journalist embed with an EOD unit–align themselves with neither supporters nor opponents of the U.S. involvement. There’s no politics here. War is just the job the characters in the movie do. One in particular, the supremely resourceful staff sergeant played by Jeremy Renner, is addicted to the almost nonstop adrenaline rush and the opportunity to express his esoteric, life-on-the-edge genius. The hurt locker of the title is a box he keeps under his bunk, filled with bomb parts and other signatory memorabilia of “things that could have killed me.” That none of it has killed him so far is no real consolation. In this movie, you never know who’s going to go and when; even high-profile talent (we won’t name names here) is no guarantee. But one thing can be guaranteed, and that is that almost every sequence in the movie becomes a riveting, often fiercely enigmatic set piece. This is Kathryn Bigelow’s best film since 1987’s Near Dark. It could also be the best film of 2009. –Richard T. Jameson
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Possibly the best of 2009
5 stars for this blu ray release. The Hurt Locker is a nail biting war drama that goes down as my best film of 09. Almost every moment is packed with a tense nerve racking situation with danger lurking around every turn. The pacing of the movie is fantastic and I was amazed by the ensemble of shall I say non name brand actors. There are a couple of nice cameos but J Renner and A Mackie steal the show. There are no set bad guys in this film as each mission feels real and the fear of not knowing what’s to come. This is one film that exceeded my expectations. 4.5/5 Movie
4.5/5 Pic quality 5/5 Audio quality
5 Stars Amazing movie
Really cool! Fictional, but cool. for a great perspective from a REAL solider, see Brothers at War. This is definitely great, though, as a fictional portrayal.
1 Stars Army of One
The concept of the rebel bomb squad technician who just doesn’t follow army rules/regulations or a chain of command is ridiculous. (It reminded me of Keanu in Speed.)
The main character put everybody in a one-mile radius in danger for 90 minutes. At one point in the movie, he doesn’t want to wait for the cavalry to arrive after a bombing, so he runs around downtown Iraq to catch the bad guys…and gets his partner caught/shot, cant remember which. Army of one…
This movie must have been accuracy-checked by a 12-year-old because he had played all the Call of Duty games.
On the other hand, the cinematography was great! I have to give them that. Entertaining, but a wholly ridiculous movie.
5 Stars Taut, tense, terrific
This movie will keep you on the edge of your seat with tension. It also shows not only the bravery of the soldiers but also the humanity. Performances are incredibly believable and it is not just another war movie - it is an exceptionally human movie.
4 Stars excellent
The Hurt Locker is about the fog of war. The modern fog of war, with explosives, insurgants, cell phone detinators, where a servicepersons death can lay in the next trash pile, in the next pale blue Honda Civic. Any object we see every day.
The story is about a bomb squad in Iraq, and you see them in constant danger under such circumstances. The acting is terrific. The story does not have a traditional arc, but that is really not what Hurt Locker is about. It is about the constant danger, over there.
A lot of reviewers here who were there say this was not how it is. I am in no position to argue with them. But for a basic idea of how deadly the Iraq war can be–and for that matter any insurgent war we are now involved in–this is the movie to watch.
Policy differances don’t matter. For the Iraq war or opposed, we should all as Americans see this film
Filed under: Blue Ray Movie Reviews