Sunday, November 15, 2015

New Movie Review! The Hurt Locker (2009)

The Hurt Locker (2009)



When I was 19 after hearing the Hurt Locker won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 82nd Oscars, I decided to rent it, And at the time Transformers was one of my favorite movies of all time, and I loved the blockbuster bombastic style. Not that my taste was necessary bad back then, but I didn’t not appreciate nor understand certain kinds of films, this was one of them. I found it lethargically paced and boring with no coherent plot. So I lost interest quickly watching after about an hour. I left the room to do something else But over the last three or four years since then, by taste has expanded I’ve broadened my idea of what a good movie is and notice certain details that I didn’t in the past. So I decided to give this movie another shot.


And while yes it’s definitely a slower paced film, and it’s not exactly stuffed with complex subplots, I understood the gist of what the film was trying to say more. I Found this to be a rather interesting character study and found it to showcase the ugliness of war as well as explore the injustices that can before innocent lives in the process.  Jeremy Renner leads the cast  as Sergeant First Class William James. The bomb squad disarmer, who is made a part of their squad after their last bomb disarmer was killed, he is cocky and even careless at times, and this makes him but heads with Sergeant JT Sanborn. 



Most of the film is scenes  take place with the squad discovering and disarming hidden bombs in cities in Iraq, which is where most of the tension come from for the characters and the tone of the film, which is grim and realistic character’s are shot and killed with very little flair, save for a few bomb sequences  but it only adds to the realism of the film, Renner is excellent here,  as is Mackie (who ironically would both play superheroes later in marvel films). I admire director Kathryn Bigelow’s  knowledge of warfare, the way the war boys act and interact with one anther plays of very organically as well, being buddies one minute then  raging angry and wanting to kill each other the next. I have to give a shout out to the Camera work as well, though it gets a little shaky at times, it for the most part is brilliantly executed, one thing I am a little surprised about is that this movie was nominated for best original score, but I hardly remember there being a score at all. 



After a second try I definitely enjoyed this film a lot more, although I’m still not sure I would say it deserved best picture, but an interesting watch about modern warfare and the Iraqi war none the less.  

3.5/5

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