The Hurt Locker Reviews

"Hurt Locker" ou "Estado de Guerra" como queiram, foi um filme que gostei especialmente de ver, não só pela acção que decorre sobre todo o filme, mas também pela forma como é abordado este tema tão sensível. Kathryn Bigelow coloca-nos num perfeito cenário para os dias que atravessamos na terra,o puro estado de guerra puro e duro, onde somos quase obrigados a mexermos-nos várias vezes do próprio local onde nos encontramos, para assim viver mais uma missão de uma equipa que desactiva bombas. Para nós pode ser apenas mais uma missão, para quem trabalha é mais um dia, que pode definir a vida ou a morte. O filme é todo ele uma "corda bamba", dançando ao sabor dos mini tornados que sobrevoam todos os dias os mais perfeitos cenários de guerra.Um filme que vale a pena ver e rever vezes sem conta.

探討戰爭議題，處在戰爭中有人想急著逃出，有人卻深陷不已。或許只都是因為沒有回頭路。每一次攻擊、每一枚炸彈，都背負著多少生命。可惜的是，掌控戰爭與否得人，往往是那個沒有實際深刻體會前線每一秒。

I bought this film safe in the knowledge that it had to be something groundbreaking and after pocketing six academy awards with resistance from the likes of Avatar, I was surely onto a winner…..Right? Wrong.

Best Director is the only truly deserved Oscar awarded because she has somehow managed to construct a two hour long film out of three decent scenes. Not since the French fleet of 1805 have I seen such acclamation been awarded to something that is so truly mediocre.

Most of this film consists of an illiterate bunch of thugs beating each other up mentally and physically. It's not that this "boots on the ground" style doesn't appeal to me because it is in the same vein as 'Generation Kill' which was one of the best depictions of modern warfare in the Gulf that I have seen. The 'hook' with 'Gen Kill' was that you felt genuine compassion and empathy for the soldiers, they made you laugh and the script absorbed you into the plight of the Scout Marine.

When this is compared to 'Hurt Locker' which is also taken from personal experience, the only emotion I remember feeling toward any of them is that I wish they would shut the hell up. Dull, inane & repetitive are the three words that summon the script up best.

As I touched upon previously there were a small trickle of scenes that almost redeem the film and all of them fall within the realms of "the bomb disposal bits" which are 40-50 minutes of the film at most. Every other minute in-between them I was staring at the clock. The disposal scenes are very accomplished and are very well portrayed. The walk of solitude, the anticipation and the constant fear that death can come at any moment is ever present but without these rare scenes I don't think I would of made it through the film without switching off.

These brilliant scenes are broken up with mind numbingly boring conversation and character interaction such as "You hit me!" - "No you hit me!" - "No you hit me first!" - Cue a brawl on the floor……such interactions are common and laborious and would be better suited in a "Dannay Dyar" type movie. To add to the melanoma that is the script there are some ground creakingly, cock bogglingly ludicrous decisions made by the lead character i.e. forcing a local at gun point to take him to a strangers house in the middle of "haji" territory. Asking him to wait. Expecting him to and then running back through nutcase central for absolutely no reason other than what turned out to be a time filler. And don’t think I don't understand he got a thrill out of mortal danger. I get it. But this provided me with nothing as a viewer.

What completely ruined all sense of reality was when an ordinary group of American soldiers came to the rescue of the woefully inept SAS. I mean tally ho, gee-whiz and bloody hell. Thank god for the American Troops eh? What would us toothless SAS do with out that rugged, exceptional and special group of men pwhat pwhat? Thank god "the everyday US Trooper who rarely sees full combat because he's in a bomb disposal squad!!!" isn't a completely blundering buffoon who can't shoot straight!

You wouldn't see a group of Scots guards saving a group of CIA agents in the middle of the desert in a British film! In fact, why wasn't it the CIA in Hurt Locker? Why do it? The SAS and SBS are sent over to America to help train their troops. FACT. American directors need to get over themselves. FACT.

Amongst other things that repeatedly flashed my anger were the actors themselves, the over use of the phrase "coulda got us/me killed" and the death of the "recognised" child being revoked to save the audiences feelings. If you ask me Evangeline Lilley should have been awarded an Oscar for managing to keep her role in it to an absolute minimum. WHY IS SHE EVEN ON THE TITLE CASE!?

I can see no other reason why this film has done so well at the Oscars other than that the director is James Cameron's ex-wife and that this would be a very large middle finger to the man who directed Titanic. "Hurt Locker" has piggybacked on this fact and I sincerely believe Avatar was robbed because of it. While Avatar's story wasn't groundbreaking the film was and I can't remember looking for a clock or an escape route once!

''The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.''

Iraq. Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.

Jeremy Renner: SSG William James

The Hurt Locker(2008) is a master stroke from Director Kathryn Bigelow, and superbly written by Mark Boal. An insight into the days of a bomb disposal unit and their time and relationships with each other in Iraq.
It has been nominated for 9 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and of course cinematography. Won 3 Golden globes, and won BAFTAs including one for Best picture. Now I have seen it I know why it has garnered these awards. It is simply a masterpiece and study of War, men, people and hurls us into the world of these soldiers. We feel part of this; We feel the tension and suspense with them.



The Hurt Locker is modern-day life in Iraq, shown through the eyes of members of an EOD team. They are put to the test as they spend the remaining 38 days of their rotation together as they encounter some impossible scenarios. The Hurt Locker is not necessarily an action film, but a drama and thriller. As a consequence the realism of the story elevates to pinnacle peaks. Each actor and cast member did an impressive job in their respective roles, never overacting or blandly complying with the script.
Guy Pearce, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse and even Evangeline Lilly make appearances with sometimes brief but perfected performances.
Although the main character steals the show; Jeremy Renner as SSgt. Will James may portray the typical war hero; Cocky, hotheaded, wild and reckless, but even so, his character is far from perfect, and as his service in Iraq continues, he becomes vulnerable, therefore realizing he is just a man. Renner victoriously impacts this successfully through his acting.

''There's enough bang in there to blow us all to Jesus. If I'm gonna die, I want to die comfortable.''

In addition to the performances, Barry Ackroyd's cinematography is breathtakingly enveloping. He makes the film in such a way that it almost feels as if it could be a documentary made by someone in real time. This includes segments of the shaky camera technique, quick zoom ins and outs, and occasional focus issues. This may seem like sloppy camera work, but it is intentional; It helps put the viewer right in the centre of events, of Iraq.

Original Music by Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders also adds depth in helping make such an intense and realistic journey. Slick editing results in a consistent yet plausible storytelling and insight. On top of this, the ambient effects and sounds, help out in adding suspense, never pushing in being overly used. Director Kathryn Bigelow; I've not seen many of her films, but she has talent, good looks and balls (specifically for the fact that this film was shot in Jordan, just miles from Iraq) for making such an intense, suspenseful, and gripping war film that is not glorifying the military nor is about a moral lesson. She shows the war as it is in Iraq, which includes the chaos of gun battles, the paranoia and racial tensions between the U.S. soldiers and the innocent Iraqi civilians. This is an honest sometimes brutal depiction of life and the World of War.

I know this film will win even more awards in the near future, and rightly so. This is one of the best films I have seen this year. It has all the ingredients a good film needs: decent acting, a unique story, wonderful cinematography/composition shots, and a fast-pace.

''You love playing with that. You love playing with all your stuffed animals. You love your Mommy, your Daddy. You love your pajamas. You love everything, don't ya? Yea. But you know what, buddy? As you get older... some of the things you love might not seem so special anymore. Like your Jack-in-a-Box. Maybe you'll realize it's just a piece of tin and a stuffed animal. And then you forget the few things you really love. And by the time you get to my age, maybe it's only one or two things. With me, I think it's one.''

"The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug."

The notion of yet another motion picture concerning the Iraq War is probably about as welcome as a knife in the eye. While it may be a pertinent topic in this day and age, it's a flat cinematic subject, with Hollywood producing generally stodgy movies of bloated self-importance marred by various miscalculations (Rendition, The Kingdom, and so on). Thank heavens, then, for Kathryn Bigelow's superb The Hurt Locker. Among the various reasons that Bigelow's flick works where others have failed is that it never endeavours to be "about" the war in Iraq; rather, it accepts the war as a background setting for a fascinating character study regarding the potentially addictive thrills of mortal danger.

Set during the early stages of the post-invasion period in Iraq in 2004, The Hurt Locker follows a group of American soldiers known as Bravo Company who specialise in bomb disposal. With just a few weeks remaining before they are rotated back to the United States, their Sergeant meets with an unfortunate end. This leaves the other soldiers in the unit to serve their final weeks with a new comrade; Staff Sergeant William James (Renner). Much to the chagrin of his fellow soldiers, James is an adrenaline junkie with no qualms about disarming a bomb device manually (and thus breaking protocol). The plot of The Hurt Locker from there is episodic, with the soldiers shifting from conflict to conflict. Tension is a killer during these sequences, because explosive devices aimed at everyone and no-one could be disguised beneath any pile of garbage. Since a bomb would take out anybody and anything within a certain radius, James must approach one of the devices alone to disarm it (with the perimeter maintained by his fellow soldiers). Thus, one of the most repeated images of the film is of the unaccompanied James as he wanders into a strangely deserted space - a fitting visual metaphor for the character's emotional and personal isolation from those around him, both near and far (one even gets the sense his wife and kid back home are never close in his mind).

The Hurt Locker was scripted by Mark Boal; a journalist who based the film's screenplay on his own experiences. Even if you're unaware of this fact before watching the movie, you'll likely suspect it because a clear and unvarnished sense of reality permeates every frame. This is an apolitical, boots-on-the-ground war picture. Not once do the characters stop to discuss why they are there, and they never discuss the wayward politics of the war. In fact, the movie has no political agenda. The filmmakers don't care if the invasion and occupation is right or wrong - all that matters is that the troops are in the country, have a job to do, and are fighting for survival. Much like a number of prior films that have touched on the Iraqi conflict (such as Jarhead), The Hurt Locker portrays a meandering battle that ends up being less about specific offenses and more about maintenance. Unpredictable combat leads to unpredictable schedules, and (particularly for a bomb disposal unit) the call of duty comes when it comes. Right from the opening scene, there's a potent sense that no character is safe, and death can come at any moment. It's this terrifying uncertainty that fuels the story's drama.

Another of the greatest strengths of The Hurt Locker is that it quickly and decisively re-establishes Kathryn Bigelow's position as one of the best action filmmakers in the business. Speaking from a technical standpoint, this film is a stunner from start to finish. Bigelow has always had a knack for directing action in complicated, even abnormal scenarios (like surfers robbing banks in Point Break), and the deserts of Iraq are no different, with the director exhibiting an amazing command for the physical details of filmmaking while shifting through the various set-pieces. A viewer can viscerally feel the danger the characters are in, as most of the film was shot on location in Jordan using an effective documentary style. Interestingly, cinematographer Barry Ackroyd utilised four handheld cameras at any one time, capturing a total of about 200 hours of footage. Even with this handheld disposition, the frame is never rocked too much. However, it must be said that despite this technical competency, the movie fails to resonate as much as something like Saving Private Ryan or Platoon.

The film's cast boasts such names as Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce and David Morse, but these big-name actors are relegated to minor roles. This is intentional since, although these well-known stars may entice people to watch the movie, they can detract from the reality of the situation. The main players of The Hurt Locker are instead Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty, each of whom pulls off their characters with complete assurance and compelling enthusiasm.

Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is not a film that assumes an ideological stand regarding the Iraq War. Instead, it aspires to present viewers with a war film about the ways in which a unit of soldiers react to the pressures of combat. In fact, if a few details were changed, this could be set during any war. To the credit of the filmmakers, the movie only misfires a few times - a major detractor is when the focus leaves Iraq on a couple of occasions to examine William James' life in America, but neither time is necessary. The second trip home provides an explanation for James' risky behaviour that's a bit too on the nose, especially when combined with the music video-style recruitment commercial that closes the film.

8.7/10

William James takes over as the leader of the Us Bomb squad with only a certain number of days in their tour. He is taking over after Staff Sergeant Matt Thompson has killed during the diffusing of a bomb. Will doesn't follow the rules, he lives by his own and that puts those around him in danger.

Staff Sergeant William James: There's enough bang in there to blow us all to Jesus. If I'm gonna die, I want to die comfortable.

I have been reading everywhere this is up for best picture of 2009. It will surely get a nomination now that the number of nominees has been raised to 10. Will it win? My answer is going to have to be no. I say this because the film didn’t capture me and drag me away. Yes it was intense, but I felt like the attachment factor was missing. I understood the difficulties presented to these men, I just couldnt seem to get into what it was they were doing.

It was an intense action film, and didn’t manage to take the step into greatness. I was hoping for more emotion, more physical response to what they were doing. There were two scenes based off of emotion. Yes I realize emotion plays into the tense moments, but I felt disconnected to those emotions, perhaps I just did not grasp how intense those situations are. But is it not the job of the film to want me to grasp the intensity. I did grasp the difficulty of being an army man, but not how much it affected these guys.

That comes down to the leads, and they didn’t relay these emotions. Yes this film will be a front runner come Oscar time, and at other award shows. But 2009 had better films, with better acting that hopefully win out over this one. I realize this is a great film to those who have been to war and understand its complexities, but I just failed to grasp how emotionally gripping war was. The final scene of war was the only one that did in a film that finds its final runtime at 131 minutes. They should have went for that sooner, rather than later.

Still I can see why people like this film. It was emotionally charged, but the emotional aspect is what I was hoping for. I guess I have more of a flare for the dramatics then the intense action. All in all a solid film, but not as solid as others.

When it was released in early 2009 it became one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2009 so my expectations were rather high. When I saw it, I thought it was brilliant! This film reminded me a lot of The Kingdom and Black Hawk Down because it is set in a poor environment. Also the plots are quite similar especially between The Kingdom and The Hurt Locker because they are both set in Iraq. There have been a lot of action-war films in the noughties where they have sucked or just been decent either because of weak plot or bad directing. The Hurt Locker became in my opinion the best action-war film of the decade. The plot was very clever and it was quite simple as well. The visual effects, make-up and production design were all absolutely terrific! No doubt it'll be nominated Best Picture so it should but I don't think it totally deserves the Best Picture award.


Jeremy Renner's performance was really good as Sergeant First Class William James. He becomes the team leader of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit replacing Staff Sergeant Thompson, who was killed by a remote-detonated improvised explosive device (IED) in Baghdad. He joins Sergeant J.T. Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge, whose jobs are to communicate with their team leader via radio inside his bombsuit, and provide him with rifle cover while he examines IEDs. He is a contender to be nominated Best Leading Actor this year but I don't think he should be nominated for it because he just doesn't seem as good as Colin Firth, Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Morgan Freeman and Viggo Mortensen look in their films. Anthony Mackie's performance was great as well. Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce and David Morse give good performances in supporting roles too.


Kathryn Bigelow directed this film brilliantly! Was directed a lot like how Ridley Scott directed Black Hawk Down but better. She has always been an underrated director and The Hurt Locker is her breakthrough film where she could earn Oscar glory. She deserves the Oscar for me if Tarantino doesn't win. Personally, I don't think there could have been a better director for this film. Bigelow really shows the horror of war and what British and American soldiers are going through in Iraq right now. For this reason, The Hurt Locker is a soul catching film that'll keep you on the edge of your seat. The script was absolutely fantastic too.


Overall, The Hurt Locker is a fantastic war film that is definitely one of the best war films of all time. It is a favourite for Best Picture but I think that some other films deserve it more. Highly recommended!!