The Hurt Locker - 'war is a drug'
28/08/2009
There are precious few women directors in Hollywood, but 57-year-old Katherine Bigelow (K-19: the Widowmaker, Point Break) is the only one to have carved a career in genres typically reserved for men. In her violent action thrillers men (and, in Blue Steel, a female) confront death on a regular basis. Bigelow’s compelling new film, The Hurt Locker, about a bomb disposal squad in Iraq, is not a war movie but a profile of the type of man who can do this job.
The film grabs you from the opening sequence as a bomb disposal expert, Sergeant Thompson (Guy Pearce), looking like an astronaut - that other high risk, heroic profession - in his stifling padded suit and bubble like helmet, takes small, laborious steps for mankind toward a bomb. But before he can clear the ‘kill zone’ a man in a nearby shop detonates the bomb with his mobile phone, sending bloody fragments of Thompson’s body and kit back to earth.
His replacement, Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) loses no time infuriating Thompson’s devoted team with his dare-devil style. ‘He’s rowdy’, comments the nervous rookie Own Eldridge (Brian Geraghty); ‘he’s reckless’ snarls the cautious veteran, JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie). The trouble is, he’s so good, the complainers start looking like scaredy-cats.
The intelligent script by journalist-turned-script writer Mark Boal (‘In the Valley of Elah’) is constructed around a series of incidents, all tense, expertly mapped out and beautifully photographed by Barry Acroyd, Ken Loach’s regular cinematographer, who won a BAFTA for fitting us all in a narrow plane in Paul Greengrass’s United 93. In contrast to the slapdash staging, camera work and editing in films like Transformers, where bombs are going off everywhere, but you have no idea of their impact, here, it’s only too apparent. Bigelow uses the cut not to confuse or obscure, but to ensure we remain embedded with the troops, sometimes inside the bubble suit.
In one incident, the squad come across an abandoned car booby trapped in such a way that even James is challenged. He is battling not only against the clock, the increasing risk of snipers gathering in the crowds. Though the tension for Sanborn is unbearable, James is in his element, even removing his protective gear when it interferes with his movement. Another chilling scene where the squad encounter a group of British mercenaries in the desert highlights James’ generosity toward his comrades and ability to diffuse panic as well as bombs. In contrast, his undisciplined and independent-minded side is exposed again when James allows himself to get too close to a young Iraqi boy peddling counterfeit DVDs.
Although they are a team, it’s clear James is a loner and the three men have little in common. In a rare scene of relaxation, Sanborn is bemused to find James’ locker filled with souvenirs of bomb detonators mixed with a wedding ring and a photo of James’ baby son. ‘I told you’ says James defensively, ‘It’s all the stuff that could ever hurt me’.
Other than Pearce’s brief appearance as team leader Thompson and a brilliant cameo by Ralph Fiennes as a British mercenary, the lead actors are relative unknowns. Anyone who remembers trying to imagine Leonardi DiCaprio as a Middle Eastern undercover spy in Body of Lies will appreciate the anonymity of the performers here. Renner, in particular, is so charismatic in his controlled and powerful performance, however, that he shouldn’t remain unknown for much longer.
The Hurt Locker might lack the breadth and epic dimensions of a masterpiece and may prove too harrowing for many. Still, it is a tribute to the filmmakers’ vision that the most disturbing scene in the film takes place when James is safe at home on leave, saying goodnight to his baby son. ‘Everything makes you happy’ he ruminates, almost enviously, when the infant laughs at each of his toys. ‘By the time you get to my age, only one or two things will. Now there’s just one’. We think back to the film’s prologue, that ends with the words ‘War is a drug’, and realise that the one James has chosen is war.
Joyce Glasser