Missing the War (#60: The Hurt Locker)

Inspired by the announcement of the Academy Award nominees the other day, we decided to peruse our collection for former Best Picture winners. As it turns out, we've already reviewed a few: Casablanca (1943), The Departed (2006), and  No Country for Old Men (2007). Each of those keepers were also probably the rightful winner their year. I seem to remember The Departed being a bit of a surprise win at the time, but, in retrospect, its competitors (Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, The Queen, and Little Miss Sunshine) are fairly weak tea. You could make an argument that There Will Be Blood should have prevailed over No Country in 2007, but we prefer the latter (Juno, Michael Clayton, and Atonement were the other nominees that year). Since we have already covered the 2006 and 2007 winners, why not march on to 2008? Because we don't own the overrated Slumdog Millionaire!

 

So, fast forward to 2009. The year when the Academy (wisely) expanded the field to as many as 10 films. While that allowed in cliche-ridden stinkers like The Blind Side and Precious and the big-moneyed but little-brained Avatar into the big dance, those questionable choices joined the company of some damn good films: District 9, An Education, A Serious Man, Up, Up in the Air, Inglourious Basterds, and the winner...

 

#60: The Hurt Locker

You could make an argument in favor of several of these films as the Best Pic. Personally, we pulled for Inglourious Basterds in that race - arguably, Tarantino's finest film (we'll get there!). Pixar has yet to match the transcendant Up, which was a classic upon arrival. A Serious Man is seriously underrated in the Coen Brothers ouevre. And District 9 actually reignited a moribund genre (sci-fi), unlike its big brother Avatar, which has inspired far fewer imitators. But it's hard to fault the Academy's choice of The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow's searing portrait of an explosive detonation unit in the Iraq War.

 

It's an odd sort of war film in that the actual running time dedicated to combat qua combat is limited. The bomb squad is called in, typically, after the battle is over or before anything happens - either to clear the way or to clean up the mess. The action for these soldiers instead requires the tortuous patience to cut wires and unbury IEDs while wearing the equivalent of a space suit. 

 

The unbelievable task at hand for this unit makes for fascinating and tense cinema. While, at times, the focus on the detonations can also make the movie feel like nothing more than a series of well-constructed vignettes, Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal are playing a deeper game. Quietly, the film builds into a character study of an inscrutable character, Sergeant First Class William James. (Jeremy Renner, in a career-making performance, has never been better than here.* His co-stars, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty, are also excellent.) 

 

The question the film (and Renner's performance) asks: what kind of man can wear that suit and how can he survive outside of a war? It is really only interested in that question - eschewing much dialogue about the war and its purposes (or lack thereof), the focus remains on James and his men. Cannily, big name actors (Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes) are introduced and quickly dismissed, ratcheting back the focus to the then-unknown Renner - forcing the audience to ask themselves: who is this guy?

 

In fact, I think the only misstep in the whole film is James' excursion off the base to find the family of an Iraqi boy he believes has been murdered. While it tells us something about James, its more about the boy - and feels tonally askew as a result. But ultimately, devastatingly, the film zooms back on its target.The scene of James standing in the mundane opulence of a stateside supermarket, staring blankly at row after row of hypercolor cereal boxes, says it all without saying a thing. What does war do to a man? And what is that man do without a war?

 

FINAL VERDICT: KEEPER

 

NEXT UP: THE GODFATHER TRILOGY (2/3 for Best Picture Oscars)

*He may be better (but overlooked due to his showier castmates) in Amercian Hustle.