ACADEMY AWARD WINNER FOR BEST FILM AND FIRST TIME
BEST (FEMALE) DIRECTOR
THE HURT LOCKER: WAR IS HELL
"The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug." It bothers me when I hear to someone refer to the war in Iraq as a "conflict" or "situation". That's wrong. It is a war and in this film we are shown the front lines up close and personal and indeed, this war is hell.
This film is about a team of men in charge of disarming bombs. The loose cannon (pun intended) is an unpredictable soldier, SSgt William James (Jeremy Renner) whose actions come off as too loose and even dangerous to his team. He mainlines testosterone for breakfast. Renner does an incredible job of portraying this incredibly cocky and also incredibly skilled soldier. The movie is shot documentary style and his presence is more than acting, it's being. He is strong and filled with adrenaline but at the same time, has his moments of reflection and frustration. No doubt, Renner carries the film and is hypnotically easy on the eyes. He makes sweat look good. The film has little in the way of plot or story, but more like a situation and the people involved in it, mainly Renner.
