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Is it only me? Alright, I am not into war movies and/or violence but
I have been hearing really positive comments about "The Hurt Locker",
and the performance by Jeremy Renner, so I decided to go see it today.
All
the performances are first rate but I found the movie to be just
bearable. Yes, this isn't the old John Wayne movie but in a sense you
have met these soldiers before. There is the 'new' kid, the 'wise
leader' and the daredevil. There are certainly more psychological
scenes in this movie than all the John Wayne movies put together. They
don't question what they are doing in Baghdad and we follow their tour
of duty protecting the city by defusing planted bombs, stray bombs,
suicide bombers in all sorts of situations.
Jeremy Renner is the wild man, the daredevil, the one who takes all the chances even when unnecessary. Brian Geraghty is the kid who doesn't understand what is going on and has sessions with the army psychologist. Anthony Mackie is the professional veteran
who just wants to complete his tour of duty and get back home though he
feels he has nothing waiting for him there. All three actors give
strong performances as do some of the supporting players such as the psychologist and an Iraqi, the latter a soccer fan who calls himself Beckham and sells black market DVDs.
The film focuses on these three men
and their relationship to each other, their tour of duty and their
service to the army. A slight spoiler: one is wounded and sent home,
one finishes their tour of duty and returns to the States and one
volunteers for another tour. The latter is the one who has the most at
home which was the onlysurprise, to me, in the movie.
There
is a lot of talk about Academy Awards for best picture, director and
acting. The director, Kathryn Bigelow is praised for being as good as
'the boys' in handling violence and making action movies, which I think
is meant as a compliment, which is sort of sexist sounding. She does an
excellent job and all the production values are first class.
There is a lot of violence as there is in any war movie but there is one horrendous scene involving a young kid with a bomb implanted in his body. Surprisingly enough, to me, especially with today's movies, was the lack of cursing, sex talk, which can be attributed to the screen play by Mark Boal.
This is not my type of movie and not one that I would recommend to friends but I won't be a naysayer regarding its merits.
