Former spouses James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow compete against each other at this year's Golden Globes, Director's Guild, Screen Actors Guild, Producer's Guild, and dozens of regional Film Critics Groups. With the Director's Guild Award for Hurt Locker, Bigelow became the first female director to win this award. She also has most of the trophies in the friendly competition against her former spouse. The two will undoubtedly find themselves competing again when the Oscars are announced on February 2nd. The review for Avatar is already available on Suite 101, and here is the review for The Hurt Locker.
The All-Volunteer Bomb Squad
In Kathryn Bigelow’s amazingly visceral new movie, The Hurt Locker, Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) volunteers—not just once, but over and over again for hazardous duty with a bomb squad. “How many bombs have you disarmed?” an impressed colonel (David Morse) asks Renner after he takes care of a massive car bomb in front of the UN compound. “Eight hundred and seventy three,” Renner answers, “counting those in the car today.”
Renner is no gung-ho soldier immersed in esprit-de-corps. A newcomer to this particular three-man Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) unit, the old-timers Sergeant Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Eldridge (Brian Geherty), don’t much care for how Renner repeatedly ignores safe procedures and puts himself (and them), directly into harm’s way. “He’s going to get us killed,” Eldridge says to Sanborn, A few weeks later, when Renner returns to a bomb-disposal site to retrieve his forgotten gloves, Sanborn holds up the bomb’s remote control detonator and conspiratorially says to Eldridge. “Accidents happen all the time.” And the way the movie has been set up, the audience can understand why the two men might agree to push the button and eradicate this continual threat to their life and limb.
The Hurt Locker Is as Powerful as a Ticking Time Bomb
The power of this movie is that constant level of uncertainty. Because James Bond and the Mission Impossible team have always managed to clip the correct colored wire with just a few seconds left on the digital clock, audiences have previously been lulled into a passive set of expectations when it comes to defusing bombs in movies. But director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal, know those artificial rules don’t apply in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they purposefully keep audiences on the edge of their seats.
Filmmakers Have Created Reality
Filmed in the slums and desert near Amman, Jordan, Bigelow and her cinematographer Barry Ackroyd have created a palpable reality. Audiences can feel the scorching heat, taste the grit in their mouths and smell the decay and blood and burning petrol and cordite that infuse the atmosphere. Because The Hurt Locker is so artfully constructed, the audience even manages to know more than what is seen onscreen. For example, they know why as soon as Renner returns to base after one eventful mission, he enters the shower in full armor to let the hot water wash away as much as it can. They know why the team members bond one evening by taking turns slamming their fists into each other’s bellies. They know why Eldridge will never forgive Renner for one particular, gung-ho mission. They know why a foil packet of fruit juice has never tasted better.
Powerful Motives
Most important of all, The Hurt Locker gives audiences a glimpse into why some chosen few volunteer to put on a Kevlar blast suit and methodically grapple with an explosive device specifically constructed to render them into miniature droplets of gore. It is not just because this is a way that they can be soldiers whose main mission is to save lives, not take them. Nor is it because they have a death wish or feel the need to play chess with the Grim Reaper. What grateful audiences have discovered in this adrenaline-powered movie is that Renner’s motivation is much, much simpler.
Author Sunil S.
The All-Volunteer Bomb Squad
In Kathryn Bigelow’s amazingly visceral new movie, The Hurt Locker, Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) volunteers—not just once, but over and over again for hazardous duty with a bomb squad. “How many bombs have you disarmed?” an impressed colonel (David Morse) asks Renner after he takes care of a massive car bomb in front of the UN compound. “Eight hundred and seventy three,” Renner answers, “counting those in the car today.”
Renner is no gung-ho soldier immersed in esprit-de-corps. A newcomer to this particular three-man Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) unit, the old-timers Sergeant Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Eldridge (Brian Geherty), don’t much care for how Renner repeatedly ignores safe procedures and puts himself (and them), directly into harm’s way. “He’s going to get us killed,” Eldridge says to Sanborn, A few weeks later, when Renner returns to a bomb-disposal site to retrieve his forgotten gloves, Sanborn holds up the bomb’s remote control detonator and conspiratorially says to Eldridge. “Accidents happen all the time.” And the way the movie has been set up, the audience can understand why the two men might agree to push the button and eradicate this continual threat to their life and limb.
The Hurt Locker Is as Powerful as a Ticking Time Bomb
The power of this movie is that constant level of uncertainty. Because James Bond and the Mission Impossible team have always managed to clip the correct colored wire with just a few seconds left on the digital clock, audiences have previously been lulled into a passive set of expectations when it comes to defusing bombs in movies. But director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal, know those artificial rules don’t apply in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they purposefully keep audiences on the edge of their seats.
Filmmakers Have Created Reality
Filmed in the slums and desert near Amman, Jordan, Bigelow and her cinematographer Barry Ackroyd have created a palpable reality. Audiences can feel the scorching heat, taste the grit in their mouths and smell the decay and blood and burning petrol and cordite that infuse the atmosphere. Because The Hurt Locker is so artfully constructed, the audience even manages to know more than what is seen onscreen. For example, they know why as soon as Renner returns to base after one eventful mission, he enters the shower in full armor to let the hot water wash away as much as it can. They know why the team members bond one evening by taking turns slamming their fists into each other’s bellies. They know why Eldridge will never forgive Renner for one particular, gung-ho mission. They know why a foil packet of fruit juice has never tasted better.
Movie Flashback: The Hurt Locker
US Strikes Damascus, Chemical Weapons Sites Heavily
Powerful Motives
Most important of all, The Hurt Locker gives audiences a glimpse into why some chosen few volunteer to put on a Kevlar blast suit and methodically grapple with an explosive device specifically constructed to render them into miniature droplets of gore. It is not just because this is a way that they can be soldiers whose main mission is to save lives, not take them. Nor is it because they have a death wish or feel the need to play chess with the Grim Reaper. What grateful audiences have discovered in this adrenaline-powered movie is that Renner’s motivation is much, much simpler.
Author Sunil S.
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