Film Review: The Hurt Locker

Director: Katheryn Bigalow

With a screenplay written by a journalist (Mark Boal) who spent time with an EOD team in Iraq, you expect a realistic yet harrowing portrayal of probably one of the toughest jobs in the world. With The Hurt Locker this is more or less what you get, a very tense movie which actually lacks the action scenes you'd expect from this genre of movie.

The film opens with a quote: "The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug." We follow Sergeant First Class William James (Jeremy Renner) who is an experienced vet in charge of an EOD unit in Iraq. First hand we see the brave and tough job he has to do which is sometimes made all the worse by his slightly reckless behaviour.

William James (Jeremy Renner) in the protective suit

Jeremy Renner is an excellent lead, in the first few scenes he is quite tentative but then releases an intriguing charisma that helps carry the film. The constant disagreements with his team roots itself as a sub-plot throughout the entire film and certainly adds to the drama. Naturally the story pitches towards the friends and family that soldiers left behind but at no point is this overplayed for which I applaud the film-makers, it could have been easier to go overboard on this.

The film has realistic elements in most of the film, the filming was completed in Jordan near the Iraqi border for authenticity and the camera crews worked in stifling Middle-Eastern heat. Unfortunately some parts of the story were clearly unrealistic for how the army would handle a certain situation and this is something that has been echoed by Army veterans who were shown the movie. For the most part though this does not detract from what is a very good movie.

3/4 tense and thrilling but lacks the realism you expect