Delivers an honest punch.. Review on The Hurt Locker Movie

Something to do and know upfront - Do not watch this film at home. This one needs undivided attention and the hush of a movie theater for full impact and appreciation. See it on DVD with frequent interruptions and you’ll end up wondering what the hype has been all about.

James Cameron’s ex-wife Kathleen Bigelow (Director of the film) thought similarly before the release and didn’t bother to do the promotional interviews planned to reveal the meaning and connect of the movie with the title. The movie’s website went on to explain that it is an expression used by military personnel for being injured in an explosion. My research tells me it has its origins in American sports – hence the idea of the locker room and sudden injuries. Either way, once you know what it is meant to convey, the title seems starkly relevant for a movie that brings out, almost in documentary fashion, the horror and tension of War in itself, and the war in Iraq in particular where you know you’re already in the Hurt Locker just by being there.

That’s the thought that is primary for two out of the three main characters of the film. Each one tries to protect himself as best he can from the inevitability of ending up in the hurt locker. Sanborne by sticking to the book and doing everything with military precision, and Eldridge by surrendering to his fear of death and expecting it at every turn. Along comes Jeremy Renner in the role of the chief bomb specialist who is the antithesis of the other two and is instantly disliked by them. Adding insult to injury, Sergeant James seems to show no fear or hatred for his situation, he actually seems to enjoy his work and goes about it irreverently, apparently courting death at every turn.

The succession of events that form the bulk of the movie revolve around the interactions between these three characters as they go about their job of defusing bombs in the streets of Baghdad and in the surrounding desert. Without making any moral or philosophical statements, the film unsentimentally records these events and reveals without seemingly conscious intent, the many facets of the main protagonist who is all that the others think he is, and more, much more as well..

Jeremy Renner goes about revealing these layers of his character with astonishing ease and without a single false note. The film is appropriately shot in hand-held fashion and makes you feel like you are right there next to the guy trying to diffuse a bomb while being watched blandly by local people on the street – any of whom could hold the detonator. That menace is maintained overtly or covertly through out the film and leaves you exhilarated, drained and curiously unsurprised by the twist at the end.