Film Review: The Hurt Locker.....

Rating: 7.5/10

Protagonist: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Duration: 2 hrs 10 mins

Small Reality, Big Impact

Through news channel & movies we all have witnessed war coverage’s--heard gunshots, seen sentry movements, explosions, and fire, blood etc etc etc….

But have we ever seen the emotions of a soldier who goes to war?? The Hurt Locker is a 21^st century war movie which actually shows the pity condition of US army fighting in the deadly battlefield of Baghdad. 

Sergeant James (Jeremy), Sergeant Sanborn (Anthony) and Owen Eldridge (Brian) are soldiers of the US army stationed in Baghdad whose duty is to disarm and contain the deadly bombs camouflaged by a potential enemy with the clear intention to further maximum damage.

Sanborn and Eldridge, scared and unwilling, performing their contractual obligation by testing waters of the armpit of the world (Baghdad) so they can escape from this hell once their tenure is over. But they are held back and put into an extreme danger when they are joined by their new senior, a devil, Sergeant James.

The 3 soldiers represent 3 kinds of emotions any mortal would have in any situation:

James--a knucklehead who is totally confident, in fact reckless when dealing with bombs which he calls “baby”.

Sanborn--who behaves normally both fearful as well as hopeful that he might or might not die.

Eldridge--a gone case, whose all hopes are shattered of returning alive to his home when mission ends.

I liked The Hurt Locker because though it shows a small reality but it created a big impact which is, that, soldiers are grudgingly doing their duty because nobody will give a shit if they die in the Iraq War. And it does leave you with sympathy for the innocent both the US soldier and Iraqis who got killed in this war.

The film is successful in creating the aura of a war which is rough, scary and real. It does seem lengthy in the end and the music could have played a bigger role. In the performance the jackass Jeremy Renner stands out and reminds me of young Russell Crowe.