The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker (2009, by Kathryn Bigelow)

In the opening minutes of Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, we're introduced to Bravo Company, a bomb disposal unit stationed in Baghdad in 2003. With a month left into their tour of duty, Bravo Company loses their chief bomb disposal engineer (played by Guy Pearce) in a deftly constructed sequence that illustrates just how harrowing an experience the battlefield is, as well as the unforeseen toll it takes on those involved.
The opening scene shows a routine bomb disposal mission that gets botched when a piece of equipment breaks and the squad leader (who is also in charge of defusing the makeshift bombs) is killed. Replacing him is the volatile Staff Sergeant William James (played by Jeremy Renner...more on him in a bit), a man who is less hardened by spending every waking moment in the field expecting something to kill him as he embracing of that lifestyle. The other men in his company are Sergeant JT Sanborn (played by Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (played by Brian Geraghty), and while at first impressed by James' skill at his job, soon realize that that their new leader is unhinged, impulsive, and increasingly reckless. The story, as iterated earlier, involves Bravo Company's last few weeks into their rotation, and whether they can stay alive long enough to return home.
Kathryn Bigelow is a revelation here. The director of k-19: The Widowmaker and the mid-90's actioner Point Break (yes. The One with Keanu Reeves) deftly balances taut action with a character-driven plot (true, the events in which the characters find themselves are dictated by outside factors, but how they react to those mitigating factors set up moments for deeper poignancy later on in the film). Also refreshing is her lack of political agenda: this isn't a story about the factors leading to the war, or whether it is "justified" or not, or even an argument that we "should" be there: this is a story about the people who are there in the shit, doing the work that none of us are doing and not getting enough thanks, praise, or recompense, and rarely waver in their devotion. The apolitical stance the film takes is refreshing, as the heavy-handed messaging of "the war is a mistake and unjustified" makes one view the soldiers overseas almost as the villains, when in fact they're just doing their job. Bigelow cuts out all the preachy bullshit and just lets the soldiers' stories speak for themselves.
The devotion, Bigelow observes, is not purely to ideology or country, but to each other. Walking out of the theatre I felt as I had when I went to see Black Hawk Down and Eric Bana says to another character, when asked why he keeps going to the front, "When I go home people'll ask me, 'Hey Hoot, why do you do it man? What, you some kinda war junkie?' You know what I'll say? I won't say a goddamn word. Why? They won't understand. They won't understand why we do it. They won't understand that it's about the men next to you, and that's it. That's all it is." That's what this movie could be boiled down to as well: just three men who keep going in for each other, just to keep the other safe. And the best part? The movie allows you to come to that conclusion on your own, the characters don't have to say it.
With that out in open, Bigelow is free to display some extremely tense scenes. The first time that Staff Sargeant James diffuses the IEDs (a scene that is used as the poster image) illustrates not just the danger of the battlefield, but also the suspicion by the soldiers of the Iraqi citizenry, as well as showing the second-nature attitude of Staff Sargeant James towards his work (a last-minute hunch clues him into a bundle of IEDs, and he sets about disarming them knowing full well they could blow any second).
While the main story is about Bravo Company's final days and their subsequent attempts to work together and trust together (an effort which only seems to pay of in a tense sniper shoot-out involving some mercenaries and insurgents), one of the most lasting and important subplots involves Sergeant James' instability and recklessness (which culminates in one of the team members getting injured and being forced out of action).
Refreshingly, each character is three-dimensional and relatable, expertly acted and distinct in personality from one another. Sergeant Sanborn (Mackie) is a resolute, proud, no-nonsense leader, doing his utmost to look after each of his men. But throughout the course of the film James' recklessness forces James to reevaluate himself: at first he hates James for his insubordination, then loathes him for his recklessness before trusting him for his expertise. By the end, Sanborn is unsure even of his reason for being in the front, and finds that James' attitude is the only thing that keeps him alive in the battlefield.
Eldrigdge (Geraghty) suffers most throughout the film, as he is the most emotionally weak of the group. He depends on his psychiatrist, Col. John Cambridge (Christian Camargo), while at the same time openly hating him for not knowing exactly what risks are out in the field: Eldridge is unstable, blaming himself for the death of his prior company leader, and his connection to Col. Cambridge is the only stable relationship he has in an otherwise unstable world. When James comes to rely on him (again, during the sniper battle), Eldridge slowly becomes more confidant, particularly when he saves Bravo Company by shooting a lone insurgent.
However, James is the star of the show, and Renner owns every scene he's in. He is at turns reckless, reliable, cooperative, independent, unstable, commands a unique sense of knowing his enemy, and even expressing some remorse and friendship to a young Iraqi boy named Beckham (Christopher Sayegh) who James befriends when the boy sells him bootleg DVDs. It is Beckham's friendship with James which proves to be James' emotional undoing, and provides one of the more emotionally rending sequences in the film.
I would comment on the music, cinematography (which, to Barry Ackroyd's credit, is stunningly beautiful) and production design, but all worked so seamlessly as to go unnoticed (and that's a compliment, don't get me wrong.) Actually, Ackroyd's cinematography is effective in several instances. While in Iraq (which is most of the movie) the camera is constantly moving, never set up on a tripod, so as to convey a never-ending sense of movement and instability; in instances of dramatic events (during the first explosion which kills Bravo Comapny's prior bomb technician, to a beautiful shot showing a spent bullet casing bounding on the sand) the camera slows down, highlighting the dramatic importance of the event. When James returns home near the end of the film, the camera is stable, static, the framing cramped with borders (such as a supermarket asile, a doorway, the bars of a crib). This is the real imprisonment, where life is static, cramped, and claustrophobic. James' inability to even decide what breakfast cereal to buy showcases just how impossible it is for him to readjust to civilian life, something which, so I've heard from second-hand accounts, is sadly common (but not as common as you'd think).
James' speech to his son, in the penultimate scene, is apt not only to other men and women in his position and with his experience, but also to anyone to find meaning in his or her life"

"You love your mommy. And your daddy. You love your pajamas, and your crib. You love your toys. You love everything. But you'll grow up and realize that your toys are just pieces of plastic, and you won't love them as much. You'll maybe find four or five things you love. And soon, when you're older, you'll maybe have one thing you love."

I remembered that speech out of everything in the movie. Writer Mark Boal's script is able to relate the story of everyone, not just those of the soldiers. And that's incredibly refreshing. In understanding them, we understand ourselves. And in doing both, hopefully we'll be able to treat our soldiers with the respect and consideration they fought and trained to deserve.
This is one of the best movies this summer, and is high in the running for best of the year. This is a film that has great character work, amazing acting (I wouldn't be surprised if Renner earns himself an Oscar or Golden Globe nom. He is the show here, and I can't wait to see what else he can do), and tense action. And it has all this while being true to its subject and not pandering to the audience, nor to any ideology.
I couldn't recommend this any more. Do yourself a favor and watch it.