Movie Review – The Hurt Locker
I had heard great things about The Hurt Locker so I knew I had to see it. I finally got a chance on Saturday and it took the rest of the day to calm down after watching. It’s an intense film.
The Hurt Locker is about the group of soldiers who work on bombs every day. They go into hostile territory to dismantle explosives all the while potentially being shot at or attacked. The movie opens with a quote that talks about the addiction of war as a drug, and you can clearly see the effect of that in this movie.
The opening scene has you on the edge of your seat and I stayed that way until the end of the movie. The opening scene shows the group attempting to blow up a bomb that hasn’t gone off. They send in a robot, but a wheel breaks and the lead guy has to put on “the suit” and place the explosives himself. Things go wrong in all kinds of ways.
After that, the team gets a new leader, one who is reckless and more arrogant than his predecessor. The team is less than a month away from finishing their tour and the by-the-book second in command is ready to be out of there. They face some tricky bombs and tough situations.
The thing I loved about this movie was the connection developed with the central characters. They were multi-layered and much deeper than simple war personas. The new guy is addicted to the adrenaline rush, but he’s not an idiot and he cares a whole lot more than he let’s on. The by-the-book guy longs to be the man who puts on the suit, but knows he never will be. The third guy is a wreck after failing to shoot someone who sets a bomb off.
The emotions in this film are very raw and real. The camera work was great; it almost felt like a documentary for much of it. It gave me such a respect for the people who are out there doing these types of things with no fanfare, and no gratitude shown for their bravery. Go see this movie.