July 14, 2009: The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker is a critically well-received drama about a US military bomb squad in modern-day Iraq, taking a careful and in-depth look at the work of these specialized teams, the personalities required to do this type of work, and the tensions they deal with every day which make most other people’s troubles pale in comparison.
I don’t have much to say about this film, although it’s an engrossing and highly recommended character study, as long as you can deal with the tension and the subject matter. As a viewer, I was very naturally led to think about what war is about, and the types of people who flourish in that environment. When our bomb squad team loses its team lead due to an unfortunate incident which clearly could happen at any time to any of them, he is replaced by a man (played by Jeremy Renner) who takes a more reckless approach to his craft and habitually shuns procedure. Eventually we come to realize and truly believe that he is fiercely supportive of the men on his team, but even knowing this, they can’t quite come to respect him, obviously because of his repeatedly endangering their lives through his inconsistent approach. As we go through the countdown of the days to the end of this team’s rotation in the war zone, the men prepare to breathe a collective sigh of relief while at the same time, Renner almost seems melancholy. Back at home, he can’t stand the drudgery of regular life, and goes back on another tour of duty as soon as he can. That’s what he lives for.
When presented with war stories, told in person or through books and movies, I inevitably find myself feeling glad that there are people who can and will fight for their countries and I understand this to be apparently a necessary thing in this world. This gratitude is always followed by sadness and confusion about why our world requires these wars to happen at all. Faced with a legal compulsion to fight in the military, I expect that I would not be able to bring myself to fight. However, rather than run away as a draft dodger, I would acknowledge my country’s obligation to participate in the reality of the world, and be a conscientious objector and spend the required time in jail. I believe that strongly in avoiding the perpetuation of the war machine, and I also believe that I should pay the required price if I expect to get out of an obligation. The Hurt Locker is an intimate portrait of a team of brave soldiers, individuals who deserve praise in the midst of a system which deserves derision.
Powerful, personal and incisive war tale.
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