The Hurt Locker - Review

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Jeremy Renner/Anthony Mackie
Written by: Mark Boal
Runtime: 2 hours 10 minutes

War movies these days aren't really war movies. They're more psych-drama mixed with one or two battle scenes. They're often heavy handed on a message (war is terrible, war is evil, war kills and makes friends cry), and they're usually pretty boring.

The Hurt Locker has a touch of all this, but it works because the movie isn't about battles. It's about a bomb squad, the guys who defuse Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) that are left at the side of the road by terrorists and insurgents. That allows a lot of room for silence, but not of the good kind. It's a silence that's waiting to blow you to smithereens.

Jeremy Renner is excellent as Staff Sergeant James, team leader of a bomb squad. He's the guy that dons the suit and walks in while everyone is else is running out. His character is interesting and fun, which is a switch from the usual morose heroes in today's war pics. He's fearless, a little crazy, and basically what a hero should be: a guy that makes us think, "That's who I'd be."

There's some very good scenes in this movie and none of them have loud noises. A duel between two snipers is especially well done. The tedium of it. The heat. The boredom. The waiting. And bang.

The movie only goes off the rails three-quarters through when it sidetracks into a subplot involving a young Iraqi boy who has gone missing. It rings false because the movie has taken too long before deciding to "care about the kids," and the conclusion of the subplot is pretty unsatisfying.

This movie has the usual crying jags and temper tantrums. It's old. War is awful and of course I can't say what I would do. Maybe I'd lose my marbles. But from a film/writing point of view, war movies are tedious and paint-by-numbers: insert dead friend here, estranged wife there, temper tantrum this way, crying crack up that way, and wrap it up with a character saying, "What's it all for, anyway?" There hasn't been a new way of telling a war story in a long time. This movie comes close, but can't help itself and eventually caves.

Still, it's well done and it's worth seeing.

Photo: Rotten Tomatoes