Oscar Nominated Film "Hurt Locker" Sued by Soldier Who was There

An interesting contretemps is going on between the producers of the academy-award nominated film, "The Hurt Locker" and one of the soldiers who served as the basis of the story. I feel a bit hypocritical praising lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, after some of the mean things I've said about lawyers in the past.

But praise him I must, even though Fieger's website boasts about his successes against "corporate power and greed," which doesn't include his Michigan law offices and its team 60 lawyers. Fieger's taking a copyright infringement and intellectual property case right now on behalf of former Marine Master Sergeant Jeffrey Sarver.

The claim stems from the time screenwriter Mark Boal was imbedded in Sarver's three-person bomb patrol squad during the Iraq war. Much of the information used in the script came from the soldiers of the unit, including the creative military concept of the "hurt locker," a term used to connote the envelope of fear such soldiers face during the course of removing IEDs from an area of operation.

The reason I praise Fieger is because the case would seem to be a long shot, taken on behalf of someone deserving of a favorable verdict. Hollywood producers typically take information from military and government files and apply it to their own creative purposes. An example would be the use of documentary footage in Oliver Stone's war movies. One may have a bit more tolerance for Stone's poetic license, since he was in Vietnam as a Marine, and suffered to obtain that knowledge. Not so with the pacifist "Hurt Locker" filmmakers, who appropriated the story from soldiers and then jetted back to celluloid wonderland, where they stand to make millions.

After three weeks "in the trenches", the "Hurt Locker" filmmakers can go on television and media excursions to exclaim "war is hell" to an adoring and pampered mob of film children who retire to cliffside homes in Malibu. The poor soldiers who suffer in the havoc, hell, and bloody stink of warfare go back to the unemployment lines and estranged families to struggle it out.

Will James, the lead character in "The Hurt Locker," was probably based on Sarver as were the actions depicted, though much of the film was made in Jordan. Among the indications that Sarver was the foundation of the James' character is that screenwriter Mark Boal even used Sarver's call sign-"Blaster One."

To one who has personally observed the pride of soldiers who do dangerous work, I have seen that it is nothing you could take away lightly. Frankly, you wouldn't even think of trying. My thoughts in this regard are subjective, and I'm leaving it to Fieger to make the legal case, but never let it be said that conservatives have no heart. For the first time in a long time, I have found a true and reliable "cause célèbre."

Former Master Sergeant Sarver claims he was first to come up with that soldier's slang phrase , the "hurt locker" which, like all language, tends to spread when it becomes the most apt expression for an abstract phenomenon. Associated Content writers should appreciate this, I'm sure, as we spend time searching for apt phrases.

Sarver and whomever else participated in the story line should be considered "financial participants," as the attorney maintains. Attorney Fieger has filed the multi-million dollar case in New Jersey federal court. It wouldn't bother me in the least if a jury or judge, in addition to providing fat intellectual property claims, awarded the brave men and women who fight America's battles, an unlimited dollar amount of "pain and suffering" damages. After all, if the U.S. Congress doesn't want to engage in a process of tort reform on behalf of doctors, then perhaps it will applaud Hollywood moneys being channeled off to where the bullets hit the bone.