My Review: The Hurt Locker (10/10)

¨There's enough bang in there to blow us all to Jesus. If I'm gonna die, I want to die comfortable.¨

The Hurt Locker grabs your attention from the very opening scene. It is thrilling and full of excitement. Director Kathryn Bigelow (James Cameron´s ex wife who directed Point Break, the cult classic film for surfers around the world) does an excellent job of putting the viewer right in the middle of the Iraq war. Kathryn doesn´t waste time at introducing the characters, it just puts us right in the middle of a tense situation in where a bomb squad is trying to disarm an explosive device in the middle of an Iraqi street. The tension is felt from that very opening scene and doesn`t stop during the two hours the film lasts. This is without a doubt one of the best movies of the year and recently won best picture at the Critics Awards. This was one of my favorite films of the year along with Inglorious Basterds and Kathryn Bigelow is just as well as deserving as Tarantino for the best director award because she does an excellent job with this war movie. She will have a lot of competition however from her ex-husband Cameron who just made the biggest box office hit of the year with Avatar. I think Bigelow is much more deserving however because she took a genre that has been overused and made an excellent thriller out of it. I know most audiences are tired of watching movies about the Iraq war, but trust me The Hurt Locker is worth your time and will grab your attention from the first minute. I think it is the best war movie made in recent years and I really loved the ending which connects perfectly with the opening quotes the movie presents.

The film is set in Iraq and we are introduced to the action immediately where an American Army Bomb squad is trying to deactivate an explosive device in the middle of a populated Iraqi street. The squad is formed by Sgt. Matt Thompson (played by Guy Pierce from Memento) who has the very difficult task of trying to deactivate the bomb, Sgt. JT Sanborn (played by Anthony Mackie) who is Thompson`s eyes in the mission and is in charge of protecting him from the very hostile environment, and Spc. Owen Eldridge (played by Brian Geraghty) who assists both Sanborn and Thompson in the mission. The team first sends a robotic box to try to disarm the bomb, but things go wrong so Thompson has to go in himself. Thompson isn`t able to disable the bomb in time and it explodes taking his life in the process. The team is devastated by the loss, especially Owen who has to see a shrink, but in war there is no time to lose and they have to continue with their mission. They are introduced to the new replacement, Sgt. William James (played by Jeremy Renner from S.W.A.T.) who proves to be nothing like Thompson. In the team`s first assignment he acts recklessly and disables a bomb with a fearless attitude and wastes no time in listening to his teammates. He has an alternative approach and the team will just have to adapt to his new methods. Jeremy Renner gives a terrific performance and one of my favorite of the year. The success of the movie coincides with his performance and the character he personifies. Ralph Fiennes has a small role in the movie along with David Morse and Evangeline Lilly (from the Lost series), but the less known actors are the ones who have more screen time and they all give great performances.

The success of this movie relies on several factors: Kathryn Bigelow`s direction that allowed her to make a great film out of an overused genre, Renner`s cool performance which allowed the audience to identify and care for the character he created and experience how war had become an addiction for him, and Mark Boal`s original screenplay (he had only written one other movie in the past, In The Valley of Elah) which allowed for some good dialogues. These three elements combined perfectly together to make this one of the best films of the year. Another positive aspect about The Hurt Locker is that it combined several different filming techniques allowing for some documentary style shots at times which gave it a more realistic feeling. I`m a sucker for films that have a good ending and I absolutely loved the ending in this movie which tied nicely to the opening quote of the movie which stated: ¨The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.¨ We find this to be true for Renner`s character after the final conversation he has with his baby. The Hurt Locker is also one of my favorite war movies so I highly recommend this film to all. I guarantee you that it will have you at the edge of your seat during the entire two hours. It is an excellent and near perfect thriller.