The Hurt Locker
Imagine having to wake up every single morning knowing that today you could probably be blown into pieces so small, the only remains that would be returned to your family are those inanimate objects you have left behind at the army base.
Imagine waking up every morning, going out into the streets of a country where most people don’t want you, having to diffuse IEDs of a magnitude where a bombsuit would protect you little more than a cotton T-shirt.
Imagine a man in his 20s who has diffused 837 of these and is still alive.
That’s Staff Sergeant William James, played by a badass Jeremy Renner, bane of the existence of his elite bomb squad. James is a wild, loose cannon, but he gets results. The question is, with 37 days left for their rotation, do his team members really want to play into his fantasies and risk their own lives? How far will James go, and how far are they willing to go to stop his games?
Commandingly Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker is one of the most engaging and entertaining war films made in recent years. The suspense and build up of tension is masterful. The action kicks ass! While ignoring the politics behind the Iraq war, this film puts the audience in the middle of contemporary warfare, exploring a slice of life of these young men fighting this war. Written immaculately by Mark Boal, the narrative delves a lot deeper into its characters than most mainstream films even attempt to.
That then begs the question as to how a film made for just $11 million can be classified as mainstream. Shot by Barry Ackroyd on a combination of Super 16 and HD, with production values comparable to Black Hawk Down, this film rubbishes the divide between indie and studio films. On many levels it certainly plays to the gallery, and that is by no means a shortcoming. Despite its shockingly low budget, it has everything it takes to compete and succeed at the mainstream level.
Personally, Battle for Haditha still remains the most compelling film about the Iraq war. It takes one of the most balanced stances, and in a very disturbing and sad way portrays the suffering of humanity due to the fear and chaos prevalent in both sides, the American military as well as the insurgency. The Hurt Locker isn’t looking to emulate that. It punches in moments of emotional intensity and weakness within its adrenaline rush. For the most part, and thankfully so, it places the viewer in the middle with the soldiers, capturing (not creating) their fright, the unpredictability, and the terrifying silence caused by seemingly harmless people and things around them.
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Bigelow has re-evaluated feminism by making a film that rubbishes all myths that women directors only make feminist movies. And it’s wonderful to see her sticking her middle finger up at the studio system.
P.S. Did I forget the single scene cameos by some very well known actors?
Tags: action, bomb squad, Hurt Locker, Indie, iraq, kathryn bigelow, super 16, suspense, thriller, war, war film
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Crisp review…May be that if money if properly spent..good production value can be achieved with lesser budget….
Regarding women directors, I think Mira Nair makes movies that are beyond the boundaries of feminism… like Namesake or Salaam Bombay… Even Tamil director Priya makes comedies that are not entirely feminist in nature.. but yes your observation is true in general…
Will watch this one…though I am no big war movie buff…
Sounds like a good movie pick.Your description makes me certainly want to watch it.Even Farah Khan is someone who has completely gone against the sterotype by making regular entertainers
( I’m not talking about how good/bad Main Hoon Na or an OSO is )
KB, thats the reason id watch HL. But there are quite a few women directors who dont make fem movies Vijay, but war films? That’d just be a handful ..may be fewer…
A coincidence ..was watching some film Take with Jeremy Renner. Had no clue who he was n then read this…ya..as ram v says..its a crisp take..just enough to make me wanna take a dekhko…:)…tx…
” this film rubbishes the divide between indie and studio films”
Now this sparks of a debate that is it necessary for a movie to have a high budget in order to look good?
Thanks vijay for the review.Received a recommendation from a friend..will watch it hopefully when it arrives here.
Nicely written ‘curtain raising’ review. For action movies that promise only action – dwelling more on plot points would only diminish the thrill of watching them. Thanks for crisp review Vijay!!
@Sourav – I don’t think a film needs a high budget to look good. Sure it would help, but a high budget never creates or guarantees creativity, it helps realize it.
Much of the indie world believe that money in the studio system is often wasted where it needn’t be. It goes down to whether you want to make movies in luxury or whether you are willing to go through a little trouble and economize.
Take Ridley Scott for instance. He shoots movies with 5-7 cameras rolling simultaneously. Now for every shot, having to light for so many cameras at a time, hiding these cameras, and then perhaps in post, even having to erase them out of the frame. All these things take time. Time is money. In his films, the production designers and art directors never just dress the frame. They just create a huge set. It’s often the fundamental difference between a low budget film and a big budget one. On a big budget, you get a certain look and you just create a big set in which you can move the camera as and how you feel. In a low budget film, you can achieve the same feel by dressing just the frame, if you are creative enough that is, and willing to go the extra mile to do it right.
@Vijay – Nice review, I have been longing to watch this film from the time I read the NY Times review on it… I believe this is to have a wider release soon (beyong NY/LA)
Your points above on the economics of filmmaking are very interesting…
To me, Kateryn Bigelow is a terrific director, period. And that’s visible from films like “Strange Days”, “K-19″ and now this one… the fact that she happens to be a woman is just trivia
@Ram V – I find it interesting you mention Mira Nair as a director who goes beyond feminism. No disrespect intended towards you or Mira Nair, but I think feminism forms the basis of her films.
In most of her films the feminist agenda is underscored in the dilemma the female characters usually find themselves in… Rekha Golub, Ashima (in the films you mention), Shefali Shetty’s character in “Monsoon Wedding”, Sarita Chowdhary’s in Missipi Masala and her earlier documentaries… you get my drift?
So the difference is “setting up the frame creatively” and “having magnanimous sets”.
One more question:Dont you think that it is creatively constraining/limiting when it comes to low budget?(may have to let go off subjects which need lot of funding)hence the best way is to strike balance between low and high budget.
Secondly: Is it a generic thought that indie has to be low budget?
This is one war movie which has been getting a lot of good reviews.
I was reading an interview of the writer Mark Boal who is a former journalist and was embedded with the US army in Iraq. He wrote the article upon which Paul Haggis’s ‘In the valley of Elah’ was based.
Vijay, from your review and this interview it’s apparent that the movie gives equal importance to the characters story and the action. Mark Boal has described this movie as ‘ a character piece sort of masquerading as an action movie’.
Will have to see this somewhere..somehow!
I don’t think low budgets limit creativity. In fact I think it stimulates more creativity. How do I show or convey something that I cannot afford to convey conventionally. Necessity is the mother of invention.
I watched this last night. I must admit, its easily one of most compelling movies on Iraq. The way its shot, by placing the viewer right in the midst of action. the adrenaline rush, the tension which is prevalent throughout the movie, make it one of the best movies to come out this year. I highly recommend it to give it a watch.
Hi, I have been wanting to watch the Hurt Locker ever since it was announced as one of the movies to watch out for this year. I have followed every review possible on this movie but have got no info as to when this would release in India. Like all authentic movie buffs, I would like to watch this on the big screen rather than the small one. Any inputs on the release date here will be highly appreciated :-)