Movie Reviews – The Hurt Locker

This week, Movie Reviews takes a look at the hard-hitting, Oscar-winning Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker. It stars Jeremy Renner (28 Weeks Later) as Sergeant First Class William James, an IED (improvised explosive device) bomb disposal expert, who has been posted to Bravo Company at Camp Victory. We join the film as Sergeant Matt Thompson, played by Guy Pearce (Memento), along with Sergeant JT Sanborn, played by Anthony Mackie (Half Nelson), and Specialist Owen Eldrigde, played by Brian Geraghty (Bobby), attempt to disarming an IED, which has been put there to kill and maim as many civilians and military as possible, Thompson is the bomb expert, while the other two soldiers must watch out for any trouble, that is, if someone interferes and to keep relatively safe people.

Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned and James soon joins the Bravo Company. Their innovative or carefree (as seen by their fellow soldiers) methods of disarming bombs don’t go over well with Sanborn and Elridge, however, there is a memorable scene where Elridge tells one of his commanding officers, after asking him how is, he says that his team leader is inspired and sarcastically mentions that his team leader is going to kill him, the commanding officer mentions that he shouldn’t have these kinds of thoughts, that war is a once in a lifetime opportunity , as Elridge looks distant, the audience can’t help but wonder at the indirect sarcasm in that statement, as Elridge asks if he knows what he and the other men do every day, his commanding officer states that he’s had his time on the field, to which Elridge sarcastically asks “Where was that…Yale”?

Things come to a heated exchange when James tries to disarm a bomb, which is extremely complicated, he takes off his bomb suit to make himself comfortable, as he says, “If I’m going to die today, I might as well die comfortable.” him even going so far as to throw the radio away from him as Sanborn constantly tells him there are “too many eyes” watching them and they need to move. We take a look at the tough issues facing the military in Iraq, trying to connect with the local population (there’s a lovely guy who sells DVDs who’s befriended some of the soldiers, nicknamed Becks, who James bonds with friend for more than one football game, and the ice is broken on his namesake, Beckham, but the boy says he’s much better than Beckham), they often face language barriers while not trying to appear dictatorial Instead, they are required to keep a safe distance while trying to do their job.

The acting in Hurt Locker is excellent throughout, and the film is shot almost documentary-style, with close-ups of the soldiers and the mass of emotions they go through during many tense moments. You can see why this is the first movie to have a female, Kathryn Bigelow winning the Oscar for Best Director. Movie Reviews is constantly updated with great reviews of great movies that you can’t miss.