THE HURT LOCKER (YES I FINALLY WATCHED IT =) )

Ok, I’m a bit late on this one aren’t I? The fact is that I sort of resisted the thing for months on end. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I quite see the importance of the film. First time a woman director has won the Oscar ® for Best Director and all that… I’m a woman, I welcomed the decision, heck, I cheered! But one cannot get rid of the feeling that it was mainly because the film was about the war in Iraq and the Oscar ® ceremony happened to be on International Women’s Day that year… Now I decided to be professional about this and watched the damn thing… I surprised myself by actually liking it. However, unfortunately, I still firmly believe that the above was the main reason for the film winning an Oscar®… Oh well it’s still a good film of course, so here it is in the blog J
Welcome to the Bravo Unit in Iraq. This is one of the toughest units on the grounds, they are bomb experts. The team leader is responsible for the actual diffusion of the bombs while his two subordinates provide aid and security. With 38 days left in their rotation, the team leader gets killed and replaced by Sergeant Will James. James is something the unit has never quite seen before. Excellent at his job, yet seemingly with no regard for his own life and personal security he takes situations head on in his own “unique” way, driving his team mates Sergeant Sandborn and Specialist Eldridge (who is already struggling to make it to the end of his rotation with his sanity intact) to their limits. Will the three soldiers survive their rotation mentally and physically? Will they grow to understand each other and become friends or is James too far gone in his own little world? Only time will tell…
The film is a very interesting one, I’ll give you that. It is deeply psychological and Sergeant James is categorically one of the most interesting characters I have seen for a very long time. It talks beautifully of the psychology of war, of fighting and the states of mind of the troops on the ground, not just in Iraq but all around the world. As we watch the film we are reminded that war is a terrible, terrible thing. We also see how “quirky” people cope with something as structured as the army – or try to, anyway…
However… Yes I’m afraid there IS a however. The film is full, FULL of war film clichés… I won’t even bother enumerating them; you’ve seen them so often you’re probably as bored of them as I am… It’s like the film almost was something very interesting and original, changed its plan half way, and the committee gave it an Oscar ® for effort anyway… Another thing is, you know how we are proud of Katheryn Bigelow for being the first woman to win the Oscar® for best director? The film is so butch, such a “guy’s film” that… That almost seems to “make up for it”, you know? There is one single female character in the film who appears right at the end (Ok, understandably, this is a war film), but this just adds to the… I don’t know like I said, it’s very much a typical, guy’s war film… A very good one, but not an original one…