I know, I know, you're sick of people telling you to see The Hurt Locker. You know that every single critic thinks it's the greatest thing on the planet, but that didn't get you to see United 93 or any of those other depressing critics' picks either. Well, here's the thing: The Hurt Locker is not that movie. It is not a serious drama about the politics of Iraq. It is not moralistic and "good for you." It is a kick-ass action movie that is easily the most suspenseful thing you will see in any medium this year. And now that it's out on DVD, you've run out of excuses.
After an opening scene that puts you right into the action as an army squad's bomb defuser (Guy Pearce, in a cameo) is killed in an explosion mid-job, Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) is brought in as his replacement. He immediately butts heads with team leader Sgt. JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie), who's immediately put off by James' cavalier and unorthodox ways. James lives for his work, determined to work on the bomb til the last second no matter how many men with cell phones may be lurking in their perimeter.
The only real overall plot comes in the form of a counter telling how many days are left in the squad's rotation, but before they can come home there's a whole bunch of action sequences to survive. Each bomb defusion sequence is an exercise in pure suspense. Of course there's the expected suspense of which wire to cut and the wrong wire could lead to an explosion, but here the setting makes it a lot more than that. Because any cell phone can trigger the alarm, any random person could kill them all with the push of a button. So for any witness, it's always "what are they holding, what are they doing." And when Sanborn decides an area isn't safe enough to continue and James keeps on working anyway, there's drama.
A series of bomb defusing sequences sounds like it should get repetitive. And it would if that's all there was, but there's a lot more going on. No two defusion scenes are alike. In one, what seems like a single bomb turns out to be a whole lot more, and in another there's a person strapped to it. In between, there are a number of other events that occur - a desert stand-off, a friendship between James and a street urchin, the growing camaraderie between the teammates, and more.
Because although the action is topnotch, it's the characters that elevate this to something truly special. James is a classic American hero - the rugged individualist who breaks the rules to get the job done right. And Renner's performance is truly the definition of a star-making role. Handling both James' badass-ness on the job and his inner confusion over his priorities, Renner continually made me think of Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke or any other case where an actor broke onto the scene with an iconic character. We'll be seeing a lot more from him.
James' two teammates have less showy roles, but the interactions between the three of them are what make the movie. The relationship between James and Sanborn could be the conventional "clash at first but then become friends," but it's a little more complicated than that. There's always that slight distrust, and the danger that one of them might really act against the other. And despite often siding against James, Mackie makes Sanborn far more sympathetic and complex than his role might suggest. The third man in the troop is Spc. Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty), the greenest and most fearful of the three. Through him, the other two get to act the mentor and we get to experience the dangers of war.
Not enough can be said for Kathryn Bigelow's direction, as who could have guessed she would make this movie? Not only is she most known for the Keanu Reeves surfing movie Point Break, but it's hard to imagine any woman directing so masculine a movie that the big emotional bonding scene involves everyone punching each other. But she nails the macho characters, she orchestrates the action scenes to maximum suspense, and she provides some truly amazing visuals. War may be hell, but there's a lot of beauty in her shots.
In many ways, The Hurt Locker feels like one of the great Vietnam classics - Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and especially Full Metal Jacket. Which makes The Hurt Locker not just "an Iraq movie," but the first classic war movie for the Iraq War. Many have said The Hurt Locker could take place in any war, which is both true and false. Certainly the biggest components of the movie - bomb defusing suspense, trust between soldiers, fears of war, the comforts of home vs. the rush of action - have nothing to do with Iraq. But the Iraq setting does influence the movie in many positive ways, from the added suspense of the potential terrorist with the cell phone to the eery arid landscapes to the complex relationships with the locals.
So if you've delayed seeing The Hurt Locker because you think it's of the same cloth as Rendition, Lions for Lambs, or any of those other moralistic flops, set aside your fears. This is a movie for anyone who's been waiting for a great war film, who likes suspense, or just wants to see some of the best developed and well-acted characters in any movie this year. Unless you want me and the critics of America to continue to harass you, you might as well go ahead and watch it. Then you can be the annoying one telling all your friends to see it.
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