THE HURT LOCKER

Cole's Rating: ★★★★

Jesse's Rating: ★★★ ½

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Year: 2009
Cast: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty
Genre: Drama/Thriller/War
MPAA Rating: R

        Director Kathryn Bigelow has never reached the level of film quality that she did with The Hurt Locker, and I can’t say that I’ll be too shocked if she does again. It’s clear that she’s very capable of producing quality pictures, and over the course of her career, she’s racked up quite the résumé. Though it’s not as impressive as other directors that produce Best Picture winners—take Francis Ford Coppola for example—Kathryn Bigelow is unpredictable. Look at films like Blue Steel and K-19: The Widowmaker next to each other, and it’s not expected that the same person did it. But for me, she managed to do the following things: she made surfing bank robbers’ lives exhilarating; she made the hunt for Osama Bin Laden seem sporadically exciting; and she made bomb-hunting appeal to an incredible extent. The Hurt Locker is a relentless character study, which is maybe why Zero Dark Thirty fell short. But if you ask me, I would’ve liked to see Oliver Stone take the wheel on that one. Either way, I didn’t love it; as a result, I can boldly say that The Hurt Locker is Kathryn Bigelow’s best and most involving—both emotionally and thoughtfully—film.

        Jeremy Renner gives a passionately convincing performance as the cocky, determined, addicted-to-war Staff Sergeant James, an expert bomb disarmer. He leads a crew consisting of people who are terrified of dying, and people who are there to get things done. He, for one, wants to be there. Perhaps one of my favorite things about the picture is how it’s backboned with a evocative quotation: “War is a drug.” And when you watch The Hurt Locker, you learn that war can qualify as such. It can be lethal. It’s not for everyone. It can be addictive. My favorite scene lies within the last few minutes of the entire film, and I can’t in good conscious reveal anything about it because of how haunting it is, but it really justifies the quotation and leaves the viewer with a powerful feeling of fulfillment. 

        Some complaints that arise (from other viewers) with The Hurt Locker is that the scenes get repetitive, or that it’s just bomb after bomb after bomb, and a true plot is never really established. I couldn’t disagree more, because some of my favorite films such as Goodfellas and The Color of Money never quite establish a plot, and one could describe some scenes as repetitive. Here’s how I see it, if a director is talented enough to make a movie with no clear plot, fascinate me with the characters, and with each “repetitive” scene develop the characters and their relationships further, then what I’m watching is a potential masterpiece. That’s exactly the word I would use to describe The Hurt Locker, a winner of six Academy Awards including Best Picture.

        Alongside Platoon, this is one of my favorite all-time war movies. It’s an incredible film on all levels, and as I watched it, I felt passion dripping off the screen. The Hurt Locker feels as if it were cradled as a young child, and raised and nurtured to be excellent. Everything on screen derives from emotions, and each emotion is powerful. I, and the 2010's Academy Awards applaud Kathryn Bigelow and the people involved in the making of the picture to a great extent; I will from now on go into her films expecting the best, even if it hasn’t been delivered consistently in the past.

-Written by Cole Pollyea

Jesse's Thoughts: The Hurt Locker is a harrowing, edge of your seat war thriller that, in 2009, caused people to stand up and say Kathryn Bigelow (director), "where have you been?" This is an intelligent film with tension so thick, you need a ginsu blade just to cut through it. Jeremy Renner (star and reluctant hero) is so darn natural on screen, you can't even tell he's acting. Overall, The Hurt Locker takes plenty of risks that most movies wouldn't dare touch. It's easily one of the best vehicles of the aforementioned year, and its Best Picture Oscar was well deserved. As a flick about soldiers looking for bombs, this is a must see. Look for a fantastic opening scene with Aussie actor Guy Pierce. It's a powerful sequence setting a tone that never looks back.