The Hurt Locker (15.)
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow.
Starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, Christian Camargo. 130 mins
Let’s begin by firmly stating that this is a flat out, bona fide, classic war film. It’s also a flat out, bona fide, classic Iraq War film, though I hesitate to mention this – such is the stigma attached to the term that in the States this nerve shredding action thriller has had the kind of limited release pattern more usual for a dainty art house piece.
While Operation Iraqi Freedom seems to have been conceived as a same again, stick-to-a-winning formula sequel to Desert Storm, most of its accompanying war films have been happy to just regurgitate the language, characterisation and moral overview of the Vietnam films. Indeed a reason Hurt Locker is so good is it feels like it’s the first war film since Private Ryan that isn’t utterly beholden to Full Metal Jacket.
The Hurt Locker is more in the tradition of Howard Hawks, a mean lean film about men doing an extreme job in extreme conditions. In this case a three man bomb disposal unit headed up by the swaggering, cavalier Staff Sergeant James (Renner.)
It opens with the quotation War is a Drug ,which is hardly an original insight, and the drama is bedded in a layer of clichés - the unit that is counting down the days till they go home; the daredevil maverick soldier who seems to court death. You should’ve seen it all before but there’s something in Bigelow’s direction that makes it feel like you’re treading this path for the first time.
There’s also a great central performance by Renner. He seems to flip between resembling Daniel Craig and James Belushi and delivers a lead character unlike any other.
The film is a stark, bare bones package - one tense lengthy set piece after another, with just a few moments of talking time in between before wham, your head is shoved right back in the oven and left to simmer there for a good 15 to 20 minutes.
It’s hard to make a dull film about a bomb disposal unit, particularly a bomb disposal unit working in Iraq, where every action is done under the watchful and suspicious glare of a local audience that could be about to trigger the bomb. But even so this film is taut, unrelentingly taut.
You think surely the film can’t maintain this level of tension for the whole ride and to be honest at some point slightly beyond halfway there is a marked decrease in the intensity, as the narrative tries to expand its focus beyond the three main characters. It does this very well and by this stage audiences will probably welcome a respite after spending more than an hour locked in its vice like grip. Try and catch it with a crowd and experience the moment when hundreds of people exhale in relief simultaneously.
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow.
Starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, Christian Camargo. 130 mins
Let’s begin by firmly stating that this is a flat out, bona fide, classic war film. It’s also a flat out, bona fide, classic Iraq War film, though I hesitate to mention this – such is the stigma attached to the term that in the States this nerve shredding action thriller has had the kind of limited release pattern more usual for a dainty art house piece.
While Operation Iraqi Freedom seems to have been conceived as a same again, stick-to-a-winning formula sequel to Desert Storm, most of its accompanying war films have been happy to just regurgitate the language, characterisation and moral overview of the Vietnam films. Indeed a reason Hurt Locker is so good is it feels like it’s the first war film since Private Ryan that isn’t utterly beholden to Full Metal Jacket.
The Hurt Locker is more in the tradition of Howard Hawks, a mean lean film about men doing an extreme job in extreme conditions. In this case a three man bomb disposal unit headed up by the swaggering, cavalier Staff Sergeant James (Renner.)
It opens with the quotation War is a Drug ,which is hardly an original insight, and the drama is bedded in a layer of clichés - the unit that is counting down the days till they go home; the daredevil maverick soldier who seems to court death. You should’ve seen it all before but there’s something in Bigelow’s direction that makes it feel like you’re treading this path for the first time.
There’s also a great central performance by Renner. He seems to flip between resembling Daniel Craig and James Belushi and delivers a lead character unlike any other.
The film is a stark, bare bones package - one tense lengthy set piece after another, with just a few moments of talking time in between before wham, your head is shoved right back in the oven and left to simmer there for a good 15 to 20 minutes.
It’s hard to make a dull film about a bomb disposal unit, particularly a bomb disposal unit working in Iraq, where every action is done under the watchful and suspicious glare of a local audience that could be about to trigger the bomb. But even so this film is taut, unrelentingly taut.
You think surely the film can’t maintain this level of tension for the whole ride and to be honest at some point slightly beyond halfway there is a marked decrease in the intensity, as the narrative tries to expand its focus beyond the three main characters. It does this very well and by this stage audiences will probably welcome a respite after spending more than an hour locked in its vice like grip. Try and catch it with a crowd and experience the moment when hundreds of people exhale in relief simultaneously.
