David O'ConnellThe Hurt Locker
March 4th 2009 04:14
Kathryn Bigelow can rightfully lay claim to the title of finest female action director in film history with Point Break, Strange Days and the seminal Near Dark in her body of work, but with her latest, The Hurt Locker, she’s achieved a new career high. This stunning film - inexplicably still awaiting a general release - focuses on a group of bomb disposal experts working in Baghdad; men who confront their mortality every waking moment as they try to survive their current rotation.
Mark Boal’s screenplay plays out in an episodic fashion but it works to perfection as Bigelow skillfully sustains tension through a multitude of set-pieces which reflect the day-to-day duties of the men of Bravo Company. Their new superior is Will James (Jeremy Renner), arrogant and headstrong but an experienced expert in the field. The two men under his immediate command are Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty).
Every day provides new threats as these men are sent to assess reports of bomb placements and defuse them if required. Bigelow puts us deep in their shoes, adeptly transferring to us the heightened awareness of the surrounding environment and its potential dangers. The nerve-jangling nature of their unenviable duty is compounded by the mental fatigue that dogs them, needing to remain on constant alert to stay alive amid the ravaged and dusty urban sprawl of Baghdad.
We soon feel just as encased in this volatile war zone as the men, Bigelow using multiple interactive cameras to capture the watchful and curious locals, their peering eyes and nonchalant stares providing cause for suspicion around every turn. Swarming in the windows above as James and his men assess every scenario on its merits, they feed a paranoia that can never be entirely discounted.
Visually the film is arresting, burning with a palpable intensity; ensuring her actors never shrugged off their feeling of being in character, Bigelow positioned extra cameras without revealing their location so they could never be entirely certain of when or how they were being filmed. There’s no denying it helps enhance the authenticity and documentary-like feel of the film. Her cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, a Brit who has regularly collaborated with Ken Loach, keeps his lenses constantly in motion without reverting to the showy, overly-kinetic extremes of a Tony Scott for example.
The Hurt Locker is easily Kathryn Bigelow’s finest achievement, a mesmerizing anti-war film, yet with all political context removed. Rather, she reduces the bleak struggle for survival to a believable, compelling dissection of the underlying human drama - and without the impediment of outside factions wrestling for attention in the margins. How she manages to prolong the suspense as often as she does in so many scenes is nothing short of remarkable.
There are brief cameos for Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes and David Morse, but the three main actors - all relatively unknown - create authentic, fully believable human beings and they give uniformly superb performances, especially Renner and Mackie. Fighting through a rising antipathy to grasp the uniqueness of the personal struggles within the other, they come to some sort of mutual understanding in what is a great final scene between the pair. I like the somber coda too which intensifies the poignancy of the fateful journey certain individuals feel compelled to take in life.
Mark Boal’s screenplay plays out in an episodic fashion but it works to perfection as Bigelow skillfully sustains tension through a multitude of set-pieces which reflect the day-to-day duties of the men of Bravo Company. Their new superior is Will James (Jeremy Renner), arrogant and headstrong but an experienced expert in the field. The two men under his immediate command are Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty).
Every day provides new threats as these men are sent to assess reports of bomb placements and defuse them if required. Bigelow puts us deep in their shoes, adeptly transferring to us the heightened awareness of the surrounding environment and its potential dangers. The nerve-jangling nature of their unenviable duty is compounded by the mental fatigue that dogs them, needing to remain on constant alert to stay alive amid the ravaged and dusty urban sprawl of Baghdad.
We soon feel just as encased in this volatile war zone as the men, Bigelow using multiple interactive cameras to capture the watchful and curious locals, their peering eyes and nonchalant stares providing cause for suspicion around every turn. Swarming in the windows above as James and his men assess every scenario on its merits, they feed a paranoia that can never be entirely discounted.
Jeremy Renner as Will James
Visually the film is arresting, burning with a palpable intensity; ensuring her actors never shrugged off their feeling of being in character, Bigelow positioned extra cameras without revealing their location so they could never be entirely certain of when or how they were being filmed. There’s no denying it helps enhance the authenticity and documentary-like feel of the film. Her cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, a Brit who has regularly collaborated with Ken Loach, keeps his lenses constantly in motion without reverting to the showy, overly-kinetic extremes of a Tony Scott for example.
Another day on the job in Baghdad
The Hurt Locker is easily Kathryn Bigelow’s finest achievement, a mesmerizing anti-war film, yet with all political context removed. Rather, she reduces the bleak struggle for survival to a believable, compelling dissection of the underlying human drama - and without the impediment of outside factions wrestling for attention in the margins. How she manages to prolong the suspense as often as she does in so many scenes is nothing short of remarkable.
There are brief cameos for Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes and David Morse, but the three main actors - all relatively unknown - create authentic, fully believable human beings and they give uniformly superb performances, especially Renner and Mackie. Fighting through a rising antipathy to grasp the uniqueness of the personal struggles within the other, they come to some sort of mutual understanding in what is a great final scene between the pair. I like the somber coda too which intensifies the poignancy of the fateful journey certain individuals feel compelled to take in life.
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Comment by Michelle Sweeney
Competition Queen
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Just a brilliantly directed film.
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight