The Hurt Locker
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
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- Cast：
- Jeremy Renner , Anthony Mackie , Brian Geraghty , David Morse , Guy Pearce , Evangeline Lilly , Ralph Fiennes
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Reviews
The Worst Film Ever
hyped garbage
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
The Hurt Locker manages to make practically every scene suspenseful. It has a realistic feel (I'm a civilian, so I don't know better) and strong performances all around. It also had practically no political agenda, which is rare in Iraq-related films, and I appreciated that. However, they could have cut out a half-hour or so - it's a bit slow and repetitive.
An intense portrayal of elite soldiers who have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: disarming bombs in the heat of combat. When a new sergeant, James, takes over a highly trained bomb disposal team amidst violent conflict, he surprises his two subordinates, Sanborn and Eldridge, by recklessly plunging them into a deadly game of urban combat, behaving as if he's indifferent to death. The Hurt Locker is probably the most overrated and boring mess of a film i have ever seen in my life and unfortunately the good actors could not save it. (0/10)
Most of the negative reviews talk about how this film is grossly inaccurate. That is true. There are a lot a inaccuracies that I can see as being offensive towards veterans of the war. But if you look at it as a film, it does what it set out to do. The characters are interesting, the acting is good, the cinematography is good. Really the only problem with the movie is the factual errors. But other than that, it is an excellent piece of cinema.
Technically this is a brilliantly made movie, but on a personal level, I don't understand the accolades thrown it's way, especially the Best Picture win at the Oscars. The film is more a string of related vignettes that could have been presented in any chronological order and you'd have the same movie. Maybe that's the point, as day after day, real life soldiers in a combat situation must face either mind numbing, nerve shattering stress or sheer boredom during down time.The 'war is a drug' theme is what's eventually conceded when Sgt. Will James (Jeremy Renner) is shown home on leave, dutifully cleaning out the gutters of his home and playing with his toddler son. For warriors, the lack of an adrenaline rush is what propels these individuals back into a combat zone leaving loved ones behind to wonder what drives their other half. A similar theme comes through in 2014's "American Sniper", although in this one, the destructive effects of James' war service on his marriage is only hinted at, though there is that one scene in which he questions whether he's married or not.The one scene that threw me was when Sgt. James wound up seeing the young Iraqi 'Beckham' (Christopher Sayegh) after being certain that the boy was already dead. One of the FAQ's on this site answers the question definitively, but I'm sure most viewers would prefer their own interpretation. What would have been interesting at some point might have had Sgt. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) confess his demon thoughts about killing James during one of their early missions together. That scene kept intruding on my mind for the rest of the picture, and it might have offered some further insight into how these soldiers approached their impossible jobs.
