The Hurt Locker: One the year’s best films

Written by Jonathan Schumann
Thursday, 06 August 2009 10:53

For several years, Jonathan Schumann contributed film reviews as part of the “Take Two” father-and-sons movie reviewer team. This week, his father Mark, the “Reel Dad,” brings Jonathan back for a guest appearance.Until Kathryn Bigelow’s visceral, pulsing The Hurt Locker, the current war in Iraq had proven to be a difficult subject for filmmakers to capture.

Kimberly Pierce’s Stop-Loss, Sam Mendes’ Jarhead, and Paul Haggis’ In the Valley of Elah all failed to connect with critics and audiences alike. Because the politics of this war are fresh and the overarching narrative still unclear, it’s no wonder that the conflict has proven to be an elusive subject.

Yet Bigelow’s film succeeds where these failed because her focus is precise, and she steers away from being overtly political. Rather, The Hurt Locker is a nail-bitting, edge-of-your-seat, action movie.

The film follows a group of soldiers in Iraq who dismantle roadside IEDs. Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) is a pro at the delicate, intense process. With his impressive prowess comes a tendency to take unnecessary risks that often lead his team into dangerous territory. This causes him to butt heads with his fellow soldier Sergeant JT Sandborn (Anthony Mackie), who serves as the film’s moral center and the character we most easily identify with.

Bigelow wisely spends a good deal of time on these characters and their relationships so when they are placed in great peril it makes the intense moments all the more difficult to watch (in a good way). These scenes — when James and his team are dismantling the explosives — are easily the most exciting, taut, and well done action set pieces I have seen in a long time. In these moments, Bigelow demonstrates an unparalleled visual command.

It helps that she’s working with two of the most exciting young actors in independent film. This will be a star-making role for Renner, who exudes charisma even while relating James’ sometimes cringe-worthy risk addiction. Mackie, who was fantastic as a drug dealer in Half-Nelson, is also excellent. Better known actors Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes make brief, but memorable, cameo appearances.

The true revelation here is Bigelow, who has had an eclectic career that had until this moment failed to deliver on early promise. Her surfer/bandit film, Point Break, delivered early box office success, but a string of increasingly odd choices (the apocalyptic thriller Strange Days and the sleep-inducing submarine adventure K-19: The Widowmaker) stalled a once-promising career. Even when the overall film did not deliver, Bigelow’s flare for well-done action set pieces and creating an overall visual style did not disappoint.

Finally, though, with The Hurt Locker, Bigelow delivers the complete, exhilarating package that we’ve long anticipated. The film will most certainly be among the ten nominated at the Oscars this year, and frankly I can’t anticipate having such an intense, satisfying experience at the movies again this year.

Video Pick:

Looking for something to rent? Here is a suggestion inspired by The Hurt Locker.

Three Kings: David O. Russell’s dryly funny, ultimately moving portrait of the Gulf War captures that event’s inherent absurdity and brutality. George Clooney stars with Ice Cube and a never-better Mark Wahlberg.

5 Popcorn Buckets

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