This film starts with a bang. It never lets you go from start to finish. That’s what great films do. Set in Iraq, this is a story with a message unlike typical Iraq war movies in the past; it’s a story about a company of U.S Army EOD Bomb squad. The hell they have to go through is haunting and captivating. The film starts with a quote i dearly love because it fits with the film:
‘war is a drug’
It truly is for these soldiers. It’s a story of survival and the hunting not being the hunted. A cat and mouse game, making the overall theme of this film tense and suspenseful. The harrowing things these GIs go through are realistic as possible. This might be the most realistic, tense modern war movie since ‘Black Hawk Down’ and it’s the best Iraq war film HANDS DOWN.
There are several well known cameos in this film. One of them is really surprising, but his role is a shocker for sure (i’m not giving out the details). Jeremy Renner is truly the man in this show of men, being a cocky cowboy in the war zone but his attitude pays off throughout the film. The whole cast is excellent, having the chemistry of a disciplined Army squad ready for war. There are some scenes in this film that grip you with your seat, making sure you didn’t s*it yourself. That’s how tense it is. The sound for this film is marvelous, making Marco Beltrami’s score a perfect dose of war and making the overall feeing for this film a helpful cause. The bomb scenes are the best action-played war scenes in cinema. I take this any day than crazy stupid Micheal Bay explosions. Adding in some slow motion was also just right, unlike Zach Snyder’s addiction to that gimmick we all are now tired of.
I respect and credit to Kathryn Bigelow, making this film about the Iraq war or war in general, joining in a genre made by men and an all-male zone in the movie industry. She clearly pulled it off in a nice and great way. Overall this film wasa great war film period and that’s saying something. In this decade of war movies, it’s the second best behind Black Hawk Down but it offers one thing B.H.D didn’t, a psychological view of war and torment, realizing that they way you live, that’s the way you die because, as they say, war is addicting because it’s a drug.
The Hurt Locker is currently showing in these cities: Los Angeles and New York. It will be wide released on July 2009. You can also visit the film’s website here for more details.
Overall MovieViral Rating:
9/10
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*Photos courtesy of Summit Entertainment.