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Since 9/11, several filmmakers have tried to capture the experience of the American soldier in Iraq. They’ve attempted to offer political statements, emotional accounts, and explosive action—but most of them have fallen flat. Few, in fact, have even come close to the gripping simplicity of director Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker.
The Hurt Locker follows an Army bomb squad in Baghdad in 2004. After their team leader is killed, Sergeant JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) meet their new team leader, Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner), a loose cannon whose recklessness could very well get him (and his team) killed before the team’s rotation ends in just over a month.
The Hurt Locker doesn’t tell much of a story. It isn’t the traditional war movie, either. There aren’t any massive armies of grimy, gun-toting, soldiers, who crawl through the dirt and lob grenades at the enemy for a couple of hours. No fleets of fighter planes. No hand-to-hand combat. In fact, the enemy generally remains unseen. Instead of an action-packed war story, The Hurt Locker is a gritty, character-driven slice-of-life drama that gives audiences a closer look at the chaos, confusion, and fear (and even the exhilaration) of military life through the soldiers’ everyday experiences—whether they’re out on a mission, working together to defuse a trunk full of bombs, or they’re getting drunk and blowing off steam in their downtime.
Along the way—through both the high-pressure moments and the quiet conversations—you’ll get to know by-the-book Sanborn, who wants to do his time and get on with his life, and anxious Eldridge, who’s obsessed with death. But the film focuses more on James—on his addiction to the adrenaline rush of his job and his cavalier attitude toward everything from death to marriage. He’s a complex character—and, unfortunately, when the film comes to an end, you still won’t fully understand how he feels (or why). But you’ll get a fascinating (and riveting) glimpse of his life nonetheless.
Since The Hurt Locker isn’t the usual high-energy war movie, the 131-minute runtime does feel a bit long. Mostly, though, that’s because you’ll spend most of the movie holding your breath, waiting to see whether the characters will be able to defuse another bomb (or if James’s recklessness will get them all killed). It’s excruciatingly suspenseful. And after more than two hours of nearly non-stop, armrest-gripping tension, you’ll want to go home and take a nap.
The Hurt Locker is an exhausting film, but it’s also rough and realistic and completely unforgettable. It isn’t a big-budget, high-energy adrenaline rush—nor does it make any sweeping political statements. Instead, it’s a simple but powerful look at modern-day warfare—and the men who risk their lives serving their country.
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