The Hurt Locker

Kathryn Bigelow's muscular, tense, and gritty war thriller The Hurt Locker deserves much of the praise that has been hurled its way. This movie is easily the best of the Iraq war movies that Hollywood has created. It is vastly superior to films like Jarhead, Rendition, The Kingdom, In The Valley of Elah, or Body of Lies. It is the closest that we've seen recently to the power and tragedy of films like Apocalypse Now or Saving Private Ryan. The tension is sickening and the constant barrage of stress and danger that the characters endure is nearly unimaginable. The visceral punch that Bigelow packs, however, at times veers the film closer to cliche territory.

Jeremy Renner gives a striking performance as a danger junkie who gets his rocks off dismantling bombs in Iraq. The good news for him is that he gets LOTS of opportunities to practice. Renner sweats and swears as he works to reverse engineer the murderous work of Iraqi insurgents. His team members are forced to sweat it out along with him, exposed to the elements, snipers, a city full of potential enemies, and Renner's carelessness. These scenes are intense and they move the film along like a freight train. Some of them do stretch credulity, however. I'm loathe to believe that any soldier in the Army in a war zone can be as blatantly insubordinate as Renner's character. The thought that "cowboys" like this who seem to be fighting their own private war are the ones on the ground is a frightening thought.

The movie attempts to show us how Renner has been shaped into this danger junkie through the world around him. Every doorway or alley in the movie seems to teem with the threat of death and every pile of trash could be a bomb waiting to go off. This constant threat has warped Renner's character into what he ultimately becomes. The film's conclusion is heart breaking as it is terrifying. The choices made by men who only feel alive while on the brink of death are difficult for most of us to understand.

The rest of the cast does a good job of keeping the stakes high and the drama poignant. Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, and Guy Pierce walk on and off in brief cameos while Anthony Mackie provides an equally-praise-worthy performance as a team member who (like us) is filled with both awe and fear for his team member Renner.

A few subplots involving a local youth with whom Renner briefly bonds and a self-authorized hunting mission by the team stretch the believability of the film and remind us that we're watching a movie. A tense, taut, scorching war movie, but a movie just the same.