Review: "The Hurt Locker"

First of all, I am sick. Ugh! I am so upset that this has happened again so soon. As most anyone reading this probably knows, when I get a cold, it's pretty darn bad and my cold is way worse than your cold. I have been coughing all day long. No exaggerations. I'm finally calming down, but it's minimal. My lungs are frowning at me and my new cold and they want to tell me "We are tired. We want a break." But I can't seem to give them a break no matter what I do. Second of all, I finally fixed the damn comment links on my blog. Now it's much easier for you to leave a comment and find the link.

Moving on...

Tonight I got to watch "The Hurt Locker." I really liked it. It was a great depiction of the situation in Iraq in it's simplistic style and realism. Through various shots and camera angles, I really felt like I was right there with them, which definitely added to the raw, realistic nature of the film. I will say, though, that I've read and heard that many veterans of the actual war don't find this movie all that awesome. It's definitely getting mixed reviews on their side. The consensus seems to be that while it depicts the stresses of the job of defusing bombs and the relations between the Americans and Iraqis really well, many little details (big ones to the vets, though) bother them; mostly in the way the movie handled situations. For instance, a team would never split up just to cover more ground, but this happens in the movie, and other procedures of that nature are not accurate. But, despite that, many of them still agree that this is the best movie about the Iraq war so far. So, just throwing that out there. I always think it's important to hear from the source as to how accurately something is portrayed (Speaking of which, trivia moment!: Contrary to the depiction in "Cool Runnings," the Jamaicans were actually accepted and well-received by the Olympians, including the Swiss. Okay I'm done, haha.) 

One of my favorite parts about the movie were the characters. They were very believable and the main character, Will James, was completely intriguing. I definitely can see why he was nominated for the Academy Award. I also really took to the character of Owen Eldridge and, even though he was a supporting role, could really feel his emotions and the battles he was having with himself over what he was dealing with.

The movie kept me on the edge of my seat almost the entire time. I'd say that's pretty darn good for a 2 hour 11 minute movie... There's not a whole lot of 'action action' but it is very suspenseful, making it a heavy movie I'd say; it's not exactly a light journey to go on.

I'll end with something I was reminded of while watching this. One of the things I find awesome about movies, and any sort of art in general, is how two people can watch the same thing and come away with different impressions or ideas. Example: (Spoiler Alert!) There is a very difficult-to-watch scene in which James finds a boy has been killed. Because of certain things I won't mention, he decides it's best to blow the building up and get rid of the whole situation. He sets up his explosives, but then just can't do it. I said to Jarrod that I thought the reason he did this was because he was thinking of his own son and just couldn't follow through. (End Spoiler) It didn't sound like Jarrod had the same initial thought, and had a reason of his own for the scene. So yeah, I think that's just great. We can all look at the same movie, the same painting, hear the same song, and we all come away with something different.