Review of The Hurt Locker

Don't get me wrong, I thought this movie was one of the most accurate depictions of the war in Iraq. The look and feel of living on the edge as a bomb disposal team during the Iraq War seem realistic, but once again, Hollywood love portray soldiers as undisciplined suicidal cowboys. Most bomb disposal are 99% detonate by remote controlled robot, not a guy in a bomb suit. Still, homemade bombs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were such a problem that most of the deaths of Iraq War for American soldiers was cause by them. During the summer of 2004, Sergeant First Class William James (Jeremy Renner) had to deal with them with his partner team of Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Elbridge (Brian Geraghty) and that's pretty much sums up the plot. In my opinion, I don't know if this movie really deserve the Best Picture Award that year. It was a good movie, but not it's no way the best film that year. Up didn't win because it's hard for animated movies to find Best Picture. Inglorious Basterds was probably too out there for the Academy and last Avatar was probably too much of a sci-fi. Most of the other movies didn't have much of a fighting chance. I wouldn't say the character of William James is likable, he is just a 1991's Point Break character put into the Iraq War just there to search for the ultimate physical rush. He is egotistical fool who runs into danger not caring about how it impacts those around him and couldn't give two craps about his family. I just found it so anticlimactic. It's not like he learn anything new by the end of the film, like valuing his life, or the lives of others. At less, they could have gave him a good reason to be such a war buff similar to Eric Bana's character of SFC Norm "Hoot" Gibson in 2001's Black Hawk Down. He is not a hero in a conventional sense. At less, this movie help discover the actors Jeremy Renner, and Anthony Mackie. The movie nearly didn't get made, due to production problems while filming in Jordan, but Director Katherine Bigelow got it done. The action scenes were pretty good in my opinion. I think the movie is great would been better if they use more of the paranoia of bombs going off any minute. While I do like the sniper scene toward the middle of the film, I think its turn away from what made this movie interesting. It's a war movie about the bomb squad with a lot of suspense. That sniper scene would work better in a normal war film about infantry soldiers, not here. Plus that scene made the British SAS (Special Air Service) look horrible compare to the U.S Soldiers. The movie isn't pro war or against the war in Iraq, it's just tells the story of the soldiers who happen to be there. I do have to agree that the film serves as the most effective recruiting vehicles for the U.S. Army bomb squad for anybody seeking an adrenaline rush. Response among veterans are mixed, as most of them think it's a good film with a few military inaccuracies. The dialogue in the film is very limited. There is a lot of scenes with little to nothing said. I do like the scene with Colonel Reed (David Morse) and William James talking about his career. Overall: it was well-acted, probably one of the best film about the Iraq War, but just need a little bit of retouching to make it as good as other war films.