Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Homemade bombs kill over half the American soldiers stationed in Iraq as well as thousands of Iraqis, even though the US Army has a special bomb squad that detects and detonates hundreds of these devices. When a remote-controlled bomb detonating robot breaks down, team leader (Guy Pearce) puts on a Kevlar suit to carry out the job manually, but he does not survive the resulting explosion. His replacement, Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner), has already dismantled 873 bombs and arrives for the last 38 days in Bravo company’s one year rotation in Baghdad.
Sergeant James is a bit of a renegade and certainly not a team player as he marches off to dismantle bombs with little regard for protocol or safety. As the days before departure count down, it is just one adrenaline rush after another as the other two men working with Sergeant James pray that they’ll survive to go home in one piece. Based on the first-hand experiences of journalist and screenwriter Mark Boal who spent time with a special bomb squad unit in Iraq, The Hurt Locker looks more like a documentary than a fictional drama. It is an intense insight into the lives of the men who volunteer for to be confronted with danger on a daily basis. Not to say that ‘regular’ soldiers don’t face danger on a daily basis, but these guys are guaranteed potentially deadly situations.
Actually, this explosive war movie is not really about war. It is an action thriller that concentrates on the psychological push behind the macho bravado of the main character – much like what director Kathryn Bigelow explored with Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) in her film Point Break. And it is only when Sergeant James returns home to his estranged wife and child that we see the demons that haunt him.
Lezly Herbert
