The Hurt Locker

The Second Review from the wonderful Jonny. Let him know your thoughts if you have any.

The Hurt Locker

After six years of mediocre, Oscar-trolling prestige films that failed to impress audiences or critics (Rendition, In The Valley of Elah, Lions for Lambs, etc.) the first true masterpiece of the Iraq War sub-genre has finally arrived. The Hurt Locker is filled with tense scene after tense scene, including multiple IED-diffusing scenarios -- when we know an onlooking insurgent could press the button at any moment -- and a desert shoot-out sequence that goes on for what seems like hours. But the film is as heartbreaking as it is nerve-wracking, especially in an epilogue sequence that recalls the "I'm an average nobody" scene at the end of Goodfellas. "War is a drug," the film tells us in an opening title, and takes that almost literally. What makes this film truly great is that it's most interested in telling us an honest story about these soldiers and this war, without servicing any type of political agenda. The film, refreshingly, is politics-free, and isn't aimed at provoking a reaction one way or another about the political ramifications of the war. The soldiers aren't depicted as soulless killing machines, as tools of a corrupt government or as pure saints. They're honest, flesh-and-bloode human beings (what a concept!). For this we can largely thank the script and the actors, especially Jeremy Renner, who deserves every acting accolade in the world. Kathryn Bigelow has always had a great eye for action, but with The Hurt Locker, she not only has made her masterpiece, she has set a new standard for which every modern day war movie should be judged against. I give this movie a...

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