The Hurt Locker (2009)

The Hurt Locker wastes no time putting us into the action of the war in Iraq. The opening sequence involves attempts by members of an Army bomb unit to locate and detonate an IED (improvised explosive device) that has been hidden in what appears to be a pile of refuse on the street. Guy Pearce's Sergeant Thompson takes command of the situation when the remote unit they've been using loses a wheel on its wagon. He dons a suit that allegedly offers protection during a blast and walks toward the bomb's location. However, as he approaches, a man emerges from a butcher shop and punches some numbers into a cell phone, exploding the bomb and killing Thompson. It's a real eye-opener of a beginning to a film, and after that sequence finishes, you're left in shock for a little while. After all, it isn't every film that kills off in the first few minutes a character being portrayed by a movie star with some name recognition.

What follows is a series of encounters with various bombs. We watch one incident after another as the soldiers respond to calls about potential threats and then attempt to eliminate or reduce the threat of harm. The unit is now under the leadership of Staff Sergeant William James (played with remarkable intensity by Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner), and he leads these men through some dangerous situations, such as a series of bombs that are linked to each other or to explosives that have been strapped to and then locked onto an Iraqi man. As the film progresses, we learn how many days remain in the unit's time in Iraq, how much more time they have to keep taking on these dangerous missions. They only have about a month left when the movie begins, and it's a tense countdown to see if the three men in the group will all survive until the last day of their duty.

The reason for that tension is, of course, SSgt. James himself. He's a rebel in a job that calls for people who are willing to live on the edge a little, but doing so can also put his fellow soldiers and the citizens of Iraq in danger. James doesn't like following orders or doing things the way that they've always been done. He has too much of a drive to figure out situations, and he's really very cocky about his abilities at times. When he's working on defusing a bomb, for example, he will throw off his headset if one of the other men is talking too much and distracting him from the task at hand. He even takes off the protective suit during one encounter, claiming, "If I'm gonna die, I want to die comfortable." It's little wonder that the other two men become very cautious around James.

We never truly find out what it is about defusing bombs that thrills James so much. He's an adrenaline junkie, to be sure, but the cause is never explained. We do get to see the stark contrast between his days in Iraq and his time back home with his (estranged?) wife, played by Lost's Evangeline Lilly, and his baby boy. There's little danger facing him as he goes grocery shopping or cleans the leaves out of the gutters. Perhaps the film is trying to suggest that some men—and it does really seem to be a movie about men—just can't be happy with a mundane existence. They need the constant possibility of danger, a thrill at all times.

The film raises some interesting questions about masculinity and what it takes to be a "real man." James and Sgt. Sanborn (the great Anthony Mackie) talk about having sons. James, of course, already has one, proving his cocksmanship, I suppose. He's not a particularly good father, though, especially considering the conversation he tries to have with his baby boy about the loss of expectations that you have when you grow up. All the little boy wants to do is play with his jack-in-the-box. Sanborn isn't ready for a child, he claims, although his girlfriend talks about wanting to have a baby. James suggests that Sanborn, in so many words, "give her your sperm," but Sanborn hesitates. At one point, a drunken Sanborn asks James if he (Sanborn) is ready to put on the bomb squad's protective suit and try to defuse a bomb himself. James, also drunk but still lucid, says no. Apparently, only "real men," makers of babies like James, can handle this kind of work. Maybe that explains James' impatience when he has to work with other people. They just don't live up to his standard of masculinity.

The Hurt Locker doesn't necessarily take sides in the debate over the war. Its politics, if it has any, are not readily apparent. At times, I think we are meant to pity James, but at other times, you have to admire the determination his job requires. He's a soldier doing his job, just like his two colleagues, and they all readily admit that there are always risks. This isn't a film, though, where the characters are always having debates about why they are fighting in this desert country (although our central characters sometimes express this dislike of it). It isn't meant to be a war film in the traditional sense. It chooses instead to focus on the different kinds of soldiers who go to war.

The film also doesn't make all of the Iraqi people out to be villains. Certainly, there are some bad guys in the movie, such as the snipers who attack the bomb unit while they are trying to help a group of English soldiers whose vehicle has a flat tire. And those who planted the IEDs, usually invisible people in the narrative anyway, are meant to be villainous. However, there's a genuine friendship that develops between James and a young Iraqi who calls himself Beckham after the English soccer player. It's that attachment to Beckham that causes James to do some of the most foolhardy of his actions, perhaps indicating the possible danger that arises when soldiers and civilians become friends, especially when you have someone like James who might be considered almost fanatical in his determination.

The film actually begins with a quote from journalist Chris Hedges: "The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug." We don't really understand the context for the quote until Renner's SSgt. James appears and starts approaching the job in such a radical way. James is obviously addicted to the danger that his kind of work presents. It's as if he wants to cheat death constantly, that he wants to put himself in the greatest danger possible, just to see if he can come back alive. There's an almost maniacal chuckle/laugh Renner has when James is particularly proud of some stunt he's pulled. It's a telling gesture about the kind of man James is portrayed to be.

I've spoken already about Renner and Mackie, but I'd also like to mention the third man in the unit, Specialist Owen Eldridge, played by Brian Geraghty. Geraghty has such a baby-faced innocence to him that we can't help but imagine that Eldridge is as naive as his appearance would lead us to believe. He lives in constant fear, expressed to the company's resident psychiatrist, that he will be killed in battle. It's a rather morbid obsession he has with dying during wartime, yet he's also the soldier who perhaps best represents the conflicting emotions held by most soldiers. While he wants to serve his country and perform his duties to the best of his ability, he also wants to return home safely and be able to reintegrate into mainstream American society, leaving Iraq behind. It's a challenging role, but Geraghty does a fine job as the character with whom we as an audience might empathize the most.

I'd also like to mention at least one technical aspect of the film, the use of slow motion at various times to depict an explosion. What could be a hokey device in lesser hands than director Kathryn Bigelow's is, instead, effective here at making the devastation even more dramatic. Watching the opening sequence, especially the rust vibrating off an abandoned car, is jaw-dropping. You can almost feel the shock waves in the theater itself. Bigelow and her crew use this device sparingly, but when it does appear, it's quite powerful in its impact on a viewer.

Oscar Wins: Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement in Directing (Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman ever to win this honor in Oscar history), Best Original Screenplay, Best Achievement in Film Editing, Best Achievement in Sound Mixing, and Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Other Nominations: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Jeremy Renner), Best Achievement in Cinematography, and Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures/Original Score