The Hurt Locker

Finally.

I tried watching this even before it won the Best Picture Oscar. Unfortunately, due to poor DVD burning, and other factors, I was only able to watch half. That was before the Oscars. Now I've seen the whole movie. After the Oscars.

The camera work was very appropriate for the movie, all hand-held and steady cam shots. No stationary cameras at all. This was the same technique employed in Rachel Getting Married, to give it that documentary or reality show-feel.

Jeremy Renner was good, I'll give him that. But I didn't really think he was Best Actor material. Well, maybe there was no other great performance for that year. I don't know.

Some really great actors made very short appearances. Guy Pearce at the beginning. Ralph Fiennes in the middle. Just like in a real war. Some really memorable characters come and go.

If you're looking for hard core war action, like in Band of Brothers, this is not the movie to watch. This is about a bomb squad, for crying out loud, not front liners. But despite just being a bomb squad, the tension and the paranoia they feel on a daily basis will be given to the viewers in a little over two hours. Just like in a real war.

Did Kathryn Bigelow deserve the Best Director Oscar? I guess so. Not to be sexist or anything, but this movie has no trace of femininity whatsoever. You wouldn't even know it's a woman behind the helm. Well, that goes to show how under-appreciated women are. There isn't even a single female character in the film. It's really a man's world. Just like in a real war.

And finally, why was it entitled "The Hurt Locker"? Because the war zone is one big locker of hurt. Of pain. Of misery. Of suffering. And of unnecessary deaths. And for adrenaline junkies like Sergeant James, he prefers being trapped in this war zone locker of hurt over the relative freedom of civilian life. And his bomb suit, which supposedly protects him, also traps him; it ties him to his job, forcing him not to leave the job unfinished. Everyone on the battlefield has a job to do. Just like in a real war.

*some info from IMDb

pic from texttoflight.wordpress.com

The Hurt Locker. USA. 2009.

Rating: Eight out of ten.