The Hurt Locker (2008) Dir: Kathryn Bigelow
- Ridley Coote
- 8 hours ago
- 2 min read
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This 'Best Picture' winning war film, from acclaimed director Kathryn Bigelow, has been on my watchlist for some time now, particularly because of its Oscar-earned credibility. However, one major thing kept my expectations grounded, and its something that always keeps my hopes in check for war films, and its the near-constant glorification of war as a topic, as a theme, and as an action.
The abundant use of handheld camerawork was certainly nothing new for a war film, especially in the noughties, but, for what it's worth, it worked, and gave the film a clearly defined sense of realism and grit - hence the prevalence of that as a filmmaking choice in the genre. The film also used sound, as well as close-ups, to elicit a high degree of tension during certain scenes, which made for some very compelling viewing.
The film alludes to the US's perceived obsession with warfare, but not enough to make it feel truly poignant. It shies away from establishing a true opinion of the controversial Iraq War, instead trying to focus in on a specific character. Whilst this isn't necessarily a bad thing to do, it did hinder this film's attempts to come across as if it wasn't glorifying some of the pro-war attitudes and behaviours exhibited by its characters.
The story almost played like a bit of an anthology, rather than a more typically structured narrative. This was fine, but it meant that there was very little explicit character development from anyone. To that end, I felt like the film didn't really have the emotional impact I was hoping it would, and a lot of that was due to this aforementioned lack of character evolution, or even the inclusion of any particularly likable characters.
This film was made by the performances of its two lead actors. Jeremy Renner utilised his often underrated knack for playing arrogant and bold characters to great effect, providing an interesting and provocative protagonist for the story. He was complimented and juxtaposed excellently by Anthony Mackie, who gave arguably his best performance to-date, in a role that suited his strengths a lot. There were also some very commendable performances from the supporting cast members too, with the most noteworthy being provided by Brian Geraghty, David Morse, and Ralph Fiennes.
Overall, I once again find myself being a little underwhelmed by a highly acclaimed war film. So many of them feel the same, which is to say, they either have nothing to say, or are too scared to fully deliver the message they intend to. I had hoped that Bigelow's depiction of a bomb squad's time in a very controversial war would be different, but it really wasn't. If ever a film was directed by a woman, but felt like it was directed by a man, this was it.
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