The Hurt Locker (2008)

Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow | 131 minutes | action, drama, thriller, war | Actors: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, Evangeline Lilly, Christian Camargo, Suhail Al-Dabbach, Christopher Sayegh, Nabil Koni, Sam Spruell, Sam Redford, Feisal Sadoun, Barrie Rice, Imad Dadudi, Erin Gann, Justin Campbell, Malcolm Barrett, Kristoffer Ryan Winters, JJ Kandel, Ryan Tramont, Michael Desante, Hasan Darwish, Wasfi Amour, Nibras Quassem, Ben Thomas, Nader Tarawneh, Anas Wellman, Omar Mario, Fleming Campbell

Due to the many international nominations and awards, distributor Independent Films has decided to release ‘The Hurt Locker’ in a number of Dutch cinemas. And that’s only logical, because director Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq drama has become an impressive war portrait, which manages to portray the insanity of everyday missions as Oliver Stone did for Vietnam in the 80s with ‘Platoon’. Coincidentally, Willem Dafoe was in the picture during the first phase of the project for a possible role in the drama. Different war, same madness, or so the message seems. That message earned Bigelow, among other things, Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, although in both cases she was arguably lost to her ex-husband, James Cameron, who is breaking one record after another with his ‘Avatar’. is. It finally took her until the Academy Awards to get her revenge. Incidentally, it was the same James Cameron who convinced Bigelow to make this film, because she could make something unique with her style. For example, for her last major project, ‘K-19: The Widowmaker’ (2002), she was praised for the authenticity she gave the story by portraying the Russians in that historical thriller very realistically. Here too she succeeds very well in portraying a truthful war situation. Every action can be the last and danger lurks on every street corner, aptly captured by the 16mm handheld cameras that give the fieldwork a documentary style. It’s a style that contributes greatly to the authentic script of writer Mark Boal, who previously based ‘In the Valley of Elah’ (2007) on a true story about an Iraq veteran who was murdered after returning home to the US.

For ‘The Hurt Locker’ Boal drew on his own experiences after a tour in the war zone. His view on the developments in Iraq tells of a three-person demining team, led by Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner), who regularly go out to detect and disable explosives. James is a daredevil with a record number of dismantlings, as he goes about his work seemingly unimpeded by fear of death. For which he is extensively praised in a later scene by an enthusiastic colonel (somewhat reminiscent of Robert Duvall in ‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979)), who shows him with a wide grin and unbridled superlatives how important such a character is for the success of the military. However, his two underlings, JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty), struggle with his reckless tactics as he keeps putting their lives and especially his own on the line in an ongoing adrenaline rush fueled by an obvious addiction to living on the edge. They are used to a calculating team leader (sergeant Thompson, a short supporting role by Guy Pearce), who followed all safety measures by the book – but despite that precaution one of the missions does not survive and is therefore replaced by James. As a viewer you also have trouble with the overconfident attitude of the new sergeant, who seems to constantly want to play the hero with his almost forced nonchalant behavior. Gradually, however, you can find yourself more and more in that attitude and his motives for it, his inimitable urge for action and charge is made more clear and you even start to feel sympathy for the impetuous stubborn. Something that is mainly due to Renner’s game. Still, the feeling that you are dealing with an unruly cowboy remains dominant. And although the story mainly revolves around him, during all the perilous and intensely portrayed missions there is enough room to also deepen the vision of his two teammates. Sanborn, for example, does not get along well with James, because he is partly responsible for his well-being and therefore particularly resents his stunts. In addition, he (and with him the viewer) sees the calendar on which the number of days in the tour is counted down as an ominous death knell, because he is convinced that he will not return home alive from the insane assignments he has to give himself to every day. (a fact he regrets in one of his musings mainly because he thinks no one will mourn him, and more importantly, because he has not yet brought forth any offspring). Eldridge, in turn, runs into a military psychologist because he personally blames himself for Thompson’s death, and is equally less confident in making it to the end of this broadcast. These three different perspectives result in an intriguing mix, so that the viewer is drawn into the daily work of the mine clearance team. In addition, the story offers a number of interesting supporting roles (or cameos), in addition to Guy Pearce, among others David Morse and Ralph Fiennes, in scenes that are intended to further color the three main characters. The soundtrack also plays an important role in this, including three songs from Ministry’s strongly anti-Iraq tinged album ‘Rio Grande Blood’.

The power of ‘The Hurt Locker’ is ultimately not an original story or innovative setting, but the appealing approach. “A film is not about the subject, but about how the subject is told,” Scorsese once said. ‘Raging Bull’ is less a boxing film and more a story about a tormented character, and ‘Taxi Driver’ is not about ‘a’ taxi driver but about a lost soul in a modern urban environment. ‘The Hurt Locker’ is not about war, but about what war does to its victims, and how individuals develop when they are at the mercy of its intoxication, to the point that they become completely addicted to it. Thanks to the different perspectives, the layering of the protagonist, the gripping and compelling style of filming and a clear message about the everyday folly of war in general and the situation in Iraq in particular, Kathryn Bigelow has managed to create cinema that matters. is doing. It is a shame that the film was initially snowed under during the prize season by an ecological 3D epic, produced by her former husband, of course, because the latest techniques happen to be used there. ‘The Hurt Locker’ deserves better, and it’s good that Oscar closed that gap in the end.