...in our seats in a state of compelled fascination
Before seeing “The Hurt Locker,” I wondered how anyone who hadn’t been in the
war in Iraq could possibly weigh the authenticity of a movie about it. After
seeing it, I can only say that director Katherine Bigelow shoves us back in our
seats in the early frames and leaves us there in a state of compelled
fascination. She has made an engrossing movie about the war without resorting to
the sentimental tricks of the trade that tripped up others who tried.
How did she
do this when so many others have failed? Working with a script by Mark Boal who
wrote the marvelous “In the Valley of Elah,” she narrows her focus immediately
to a three-man team whose assignment is to deactivate roadside bombs planted by
insurgents - or by civilians, or by hostages used as human bombs. As the team
leader cuts wires, his support men have seconds to decide who is the enemy and
who is not. Given the language barrier, they must assume every hand movement of
a stranger is a threat. Every time the team goes out, each knows he will
probably die that day.
As Bigelow
narrows her focus, we meet team leader Matt Thompson ( Guy Pearce), and the two
men who will cover him – JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie), and Owen Eldridge (Brian
Geraghty). In prolonged and horrific early scenes, Sgt. Thompson is killed. We
in the audience have learned quickly about IED robots, detonation hazard suits,
the culture of the streets of Iraq, and the job of an IED team. We have also
watched a blast wave raise the very ground where they stand.
Thompson is
replaced by Sgt. Will James (Jeremy Renner), a cavalier leader who smokes
throughout the action and doffs his hazard suit when it’s too hot. Soon known as
“the wild man,” James earns the disapproval of both Sanborn and Eldridge. The
movie is the story of the three men building new trust as they keep each other
alive.
When his team
unravels, we begin to see another side of the cynical James; we see the
vulnerabilities of Eldridge and the by-the-book ways of Sanborn. It's hard to
exaggerate the competence and credibility of the three actors who create these
characters. Katherine Bigelow allows them to come alive with her extraordinary
use of detail in revealing their personalities and the landscape of the war they
are fighting in the streets of Baghdad.
She and
scriptwriter Boal, who was an embedded journalist in Iraq, wisely leave the
political questions about the war to others and ask us instead to concentrate on
a vital and chaotic specialty in this war. We leave the theater with the rhythm
of guns in our heads: guns in hands, on tripods, on humvees, on tanks; we
remember three thirsty men covered in desert dust risking death by bomb blast
every day. Bigelow and Boal and their cast and crew have created a remarkable
movie.
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