The Hurt Locker is one of the most original war films that I've ever seen. It's characters and subject matter are something that I've never seen before in the genre. Plus it's one of the best films of 2009 and destined to be a classic.
The Hurt Locker stars Jeremy Renner as SFC William James who's the head of the bomb squad unit EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal). He leads a team of two other men, Anthony Mackie as Sgt JT Sanborn, and Brian Geraghty as Spc Owen Eldridge. Together the three of them troll around Baghdad disarming roadside bombs. William James puts on a massive space suit to protect him from shrapnel and moves in to disarm the bombs while the other two stand guard and protect him. Now, what makes this film so god damn good is that every situation and every bomb that they get called into diffuse is so intense and original. There's even a great scene where they stop to help some fellow soldiers who are broken down in the middle of the desert and get ambushed. What ensues next is a sniper battle of wits. I particularly loved this scene because these guys aren't snipers, they're bomb squad unit, so it was cool to see how they reacted to being stuck in the situation. There's also a great moment in that scene where William cracks open a juice box and gives it to Sanborn first.
William's is such a great character, an actors dream role. He's a loose canon who fly's by the seat of his pants. But really he just doesn't think about dying, and he's damn good at his job, simple as that. He loves his job and he's addicted to diffusing these bombs. While the other two are pretty agitated by his bad boy ways they still do everything they can possibly do to protect him. It just shows that these men care about their jobs and they care about their fellow men. There's a great scene where Williams shows the men his massive collection of little pieces of different bombs he's diffused. He's got a story about each one of them and he's proud of them. It shows you just how much this guy loves what he does. I mean I collect fucking movie ticket stubs and this guys collects pieces of BOMBS that he's diffused. I feel like such a pussy now.
The score is eery as ever and really sets the mood for the film quite nicely. The sound effects and cinematography are great too. When the bombs go off it's as real as can be. The ending is so good I wanted to jump up and scream "fuck yeah!!" at the tv, wait I actually think I did, anyways, (SPOILERS) be sure to listen to what he says to his baby and then the final seconds of the film as he's walking down the street in that suit. (END SPOILERS) It's just amazing. The Hurt Locker gets 5 outa 5!!
