The Hurt Locker – 2008

April 23, 2010 by JT
Filed under Film Reviews

James who? Avatar what?, this film rightly deserved it’s best picture Oscar and Kathryn Bigelow was a more than worthy winner for best director. For Bigelow this is her most standout film to date, up to this point it was Point Break.

But Bigelow, for all her talents has not made enough great films in her career, K-19 The Widowmaker was much criticised and did not deliver. But here she more than redeems herself, The Hurt Locker is quite simply the best war film for some time, and runs Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down close.

The Hurt Locker was written by Mark Boal who also penned the impressive but not highly acclaimed In The Valley of Elah.

An elite Army bomb squad unit lead by the wild, pumped up and care free Sergeant First Class William James (Jeremy Renner), must work together in a city that demands respect where any object could be a potential bomb. The film depicts the harsh realisation that there are heroes amongst ordinary men, and that in reality this type of daily work is very much a part of military life.

The more eagle eyed film buff may recognise Renner as the villain from S.W.A.T, and it’s not hard to see that he has a knack for the uniformed military part (he was also the last standing solider in 28 Weeks Later) He is growing into one of Hollywood’s more talented and committed actors. His character William James is someone who is living everyday on the edge but still tries to grasp a human aspect, by bonding with a small boy and working out how far to push the boundaries with his new team.

The support cast is also of high standard, with great performances from Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty. While there are also some brief cameos from Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes and Evangeline Lilly. The action and battle sequences are brilliantly choreographed, this is action stripped to its bare essentials coupled with high drama and tension that will have you on the edge of your seat. The camera slips into a third person perspective from time to time so that the audience really feel like one of the team.

It may not be in the same league as Apocalypse Now, but The Hurt Locker’s closing scene is pretty much a retrospective of how many soldiers end up feeling when undertaking their tours of duty. Trying to rejoin normal society is hard, and at the end of the day it is the pure adrenaline of war that becomes too tempting to refuse.

If you want the ultimate rush, you’ve got to be willing to pay the ultimate price…now, where have a I heard that before?

View the trailer