The Hurt Locker

To capture the essence of war must have been a difficult problem. More especially so, a war waged chiefly in an urban theatre whose combatants routinely utilize improvised explosive devices.

This is a film about the bomb squad. It's shot in a moving camera format - similiar to a reality TV series - but under a sort of ektachrome color scheme. Much of the film is given over to a sort of documentary loosely following a man through the last 38 days of a rotation in-theater somewhere in Bhagdad, Iraq.

A theme that runs through the film is the itchy, almost palpable feeling we are not welcome. We are an invading force in this war. It is hard to connect with those around us. During one scene a man from the street walks up to one of the film's protagonists - saying "Are you from California?" - and is met at gunpoint by our soldier who replies "This ain't no meet and greet". In a scene to follow, a man is bolted to a bomb against his will - the men cannot communicate with him - except by translator and over a radio. They hold the translator , speaking by radio up to the person's face. We are strangers in a strange land. To me, an incredibly tense moment in the film occurred when a soldier discovers himself alone inside the city. He runs home through the dark, pulling his hood over his face.

The film centers around a man who has defused 873 explosive devices and has a wife and child, that he has not seen in a year. At the end of the film, in a scene with his young son - he holds a jack in the box ... and his young son is playing with it - and he tries to explain that, as we get older - we love fewer and fewer things. The Hurt Locker is a film that brings into sharp focus the sense of purpose and loss that goes with service to our country. Napoleon once wrote "Courage is like love: it must have hope for nourishment." This is the story of a man whose peers play video games - listen to ipods - get their water from bottles and juice packs - and then try to return to a society with a hundred brands of cigarettes and two walls full of bright, multicolored cereal boxes. At the end of the film he tries to talk to his wife about his experiences... and she simply cannot relate to him. The kitchen is still.

The Hurt Locker - is a film that travels out of an uneasy silence, and then returns.