The Hurt Locker
By Ji-Un Kwon
Big screen depictions of war in Iraq make up a unique subsect within the genre of war films. But The Hurt Locker is not so much a politically charged war picture, as it is a tightly crafted and visceral action film… about men who fight in war.
The film is directed by Kathryn Bigelow (among the films in her body of work, Point Break is the one that elicits the most frequent recognition), whose career I do feel marginally invested. Not just because she’s a woman… but a woman who makes action flix… and quite often, very well. The Hurt Locker is gritty and tense, almost frenetic (at times, the shaky cam gets excessive). But the result is entirely sensory and, I think, deliberate. Also, the first explosion in this movie is kind of amazing.
The story centers around an army unit that detects and defuses improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s., makeshift bombs that are planted all over the city by insurgents. Devices that cannot be defused are detonated. High stakes, no? Each of the three members of the unit exhibit their own approach to their job, with one (a fantastic Jeremy Renner) serving as the unpredictable protagonist. Renner’s performance as Staff Sgt. William James is wonderfully layered. He’s glib and troubled, focused, yet volitile, approaching each bomb with a certain amount of swagger, though it never quite reads as carelessness. But that kind of temperament is certainly out of place in the context war, and James’ seemingly manic approach is disconcerting (to say the least) to the other members of his unit, whose only real objective is to stay alive long enough to get the fuck out of there and make it back home.
Bigelow’s direction both enhances and mirrors the same spontanaeity that James employs when he goes to work. It feels reckless, but is also a reassuring signal that James, if nothing else, really knows that the hell he’s doing. And the same is true for Bigelow.* The supposed randomness of the camera is made whole by the detonation of the action, both narratively and cinematically. With each new situation, Bigelow brings us deeper into James’ psyche. Actions that seem blasé are slowly brought together to reveal a man whose real world connection is anchored only by the task set in front of him. The only time he feels alive is during the threat of annihilation, which may reveal something about the nature of the soldier, and what it is we actually ask of him/her when we engage in war.
*totally posted this prematurely (computer glitch). sorry!
