The latest effort from Kathryn Bigelow is a gritty and realistic look into the life of an Iraq War bomb squad that is thrilling when defusing the bombs but meanders a bit when not.
In and around Iraq during our skirmish over there since we went to war in the country, the enemy has been getting more and more crafty with there techniques at trying to kill American soldiers. One efficient way they have been able to do that is by planting bombs on the side of roads and what have you and detonating them once there are enough casualties to go around. In The Hurt Locker, we get to follow around a team of specialists who are brought in to do the riskiest work in the field and that is to diffuse the bomb without blowing it themselves or letting some observing detonator do what they were meant to. The team we get to follow consists of three men, Sgt. Bill James who is the bomb man, Sgt. JT Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge who spot and protect the situation as best they can while making sure nobody detonates the bomb while they work. We pick up with them only having around a month left to go before their tour in Iraq is over and Sgt. James is thrust into their squad after the loss of their previous bomb man. The film hits the ground running along with James who dives into every situation he is put in with almost reckless abandon, but he quickly proves he is very capable at what he does. [Read more...]