The Hurt Locker

Finally watched last night. Embarrassed that it took so long since it won Best Picture last year and I clearly remember drooling over the poster at the theatre, though I didn't make it.  It had all of the ingredients that I look for in a film - serious, reflective, performance-based, violent, historically influenced. I found it poignant at times, at other times, preachy. Movies about war have the interesting possibility to get it right, or go horribly wrong. I think this movie did the former. War has quite an effect on its participants. I think the film is a good study on humanity.

Ugh, but the inconsistencies: wrong uniforms, inaccurate portrayal of Army protocol, and a weird situation with Ralph Fiennes' troops in the desert. However, it is one of those times that art makes you think about the world and the meaning of life, even if it is just to survive.

My favorite storyline was Renner's attachment to the Iraqi boy, his reaction to the body in the school, and his home life with his own son.  And just as combat/missions are his drug, his ultimate high is at the end of the final scene. I can't help but think that this is what happens to many of our enlisted. Once exposed to the highs and lows of a tour, how is it possible to adjust back to what is "normal?" What is normal, after all? Perhaps it doesn't exist...

Just today I read the Rolling Stone article about the Americans who committed war crimes by going after Afghan hajji and keeping fingers as trophies. I can't get the image out of my head. To be clear, that is separate from the film.  Though characters discussed intentional friendly fire and seeking vengeance, they did not act. The Rolling Stone article was written by Mark Boal, who wrote the screenplay for The Hurt Locker. Boal is foremost a journalist, who happened to write an Oscar-winning screenplay.

I don't like war, but don't expect that the world will ever be without it. Can't help thinking that it's too tough to carve out one's own will without becoming a pawn of the system. But I have the ultimate respect to those serving, honorably.

I'm drawn to anything where the human spirit encounters a test and it's basically the main plot of the film: tension, risk, etc. For that reason alone, it was worth it for me.

Did you see this? What are your thoughts?

Image: filmofilia.com