Movie Review: the Hurt Locker

Before watching "The Hurt Locker" I had virtually no idea what an EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) team went through in order to identify and dismantle improvised explosive devices and other bombs. I learned that these teams perform their jobs while in constant peril not only from the bombs themselves but also from enemy action that is directed against them while they are doing so.

At one point in the movie one of the team members who provides rifle cover for the team leader (the person who actually dismantles the bombs) asks the leader how he is able to handle the extreme danger that he is always in. The leader responds: "I just don't think about it." Each of the three members of the EOD team had learned how to cope while performing their job and the ways that they had found to cope is a central theme to the story.

The plot

"The Hurt Locker" seems to be more of a documentary than what I expected it to be, but it certainly was compelling to watch. Right from the beginning you are watching the EOD team in action without any lead in as to who the characters are and what role each plays.

The original team leader of the EOD squad is killed by a radio-operated IED while he is serving in Iraq in 2004. He is replaced by Sergeant First Class William James (played by Jeremy Renner) who has served in Afghanistan and is the most experienced of the squad members. The two men who are to communicate with him and provide rifle cover for him feel that Will, as he is called, is too reckless and could get them all killed because of this. This sets up much tension within the three-man team.

Sergeant J. T. Sanborn (played by Anthony Mackie) likes to do things by the book, causing him to clash with and become critical of Sergeant James who likes to take matters into his own hands.

Specialist Owen Eldridge (played by Brian Geraghty) is the youngest member of the squad and he is dealing emotionally because of the death of the original team leader. Eldridge feels responsible for that death because he didn't act quickly enough on his instincts to shoot a man before he was able to detonate the IED via a remote-controlled device. He meets occasionally with the head psychiatrist from the camp in order to deal with this whole issue.

The movie doesn't really lead up to any one climactic event but is rather an on-going portrayal of the work being done by this three-man squad and of the tensions that everyone has to deal with.

In summary

The filming for this movie was done in Jordan very close to the Iraqi border. The screenplay was written by a freelance writer (Mark Boal) who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a U.S. bomb squad in Iraq.

According to wikipedia.org, the title is a colloquialism for being injured in an explosion, as in "they sent him to the hurt locker," or for "a place of ultimate pain." The use of this phrase is said to date back to the Vietnam War.

"The Hurt Locker" was nominated for nine Oscars and won six, including best picture and best director. Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the best director award. This movie is the lowest-grossing movie to ever win an Oscar for best picture.

Although I am glad that I watched this movie because I felt it gave me more understanding of the EOD team and their perilous jobs, it is not one that I would view a second time. It is rated R for war violence and language.

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Other movie reviews by R.C. Johnson: Cinderella Man; Amadeus; The Incredibles; The Notebook; Slumdog Millionaire; Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog; WALL-E; Gran Torino; The Man Who Would Be King, The Princess Bride; The Mission; Top Gun; Crocodile Dundee; Maid to Order; Beaches; The Indian in the Cupboard; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; Witness;The Gods Must Be Crazy;Flywheel, Facing the Giants and Fireproof.