The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker is Kathryn Bigelow’s Academy Award winning masterpiece which follows a bomb disposal team in Iraq. It is a fantastically engaging film which you almost can’t help but get involved with, and as such you end up with a magnificent appreciation of the film afterwards.

The film follows one bomb disposal team and we are initially introduced during an attempt to deactivate a bomb. Bigelow immediately conveys that the three members of the team are incredibly close. The initial bomb disposal scene is incredibly tense, but this is just a sign of things to come. I was watching this with my flatmates, and we all remarked at how tense we were feeling at this first scene alone. Little were we to know that this would not be confined to the first scene, and that for the majority of the film we were still very tense. You cannot help but feel like you are there with the three guys throughout the film, and when the lead character finds a series of bombs arranged in a circle around him there was an amazing sense of fear flowing through me.

Jeremy Renner stars as Sergeant William James who is the new team leader of the bomb disposal unit. Throughout the film I found myself worrying about this character. While I rarely got the sense that he was likely to be killed there is a dangerous element to him. He is pointed out throughout the film to be an adrenaline junkie, and this is conveyed expertly by Renner. He starts off as being a thoroughly dislikable character, and with the progression of the film I wouldn't say that he becomes more likeable, but I found myself sympathising with him more and more. The scene where he is back at home and looking for cereal is one of the most poignant pieces of filmmaking I have seen in a while, and perfectly reflected how mundane everyday life is after a tour in Iraq.

Both Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty (the other two members of the bomb disposal team) work perfectly with Renner to create the unit. Bigelow is on record as stating that the unknown nature of the actors leads to a level of uncertainty in the film, and this is evident throughout The Hurt Locker (Time’s Up: Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker by Nick Dawson – filmmakermagazine.com). There is no sense of knowing what an actor will do, or how they will react because you have never seen them before. The emotion and engagement that the audience feels towards the three characters (particularly Mackie and Geraghty) is an obvious parallel to the intimacy of the trio, but cracks are obvious, and they are both concerned about James’ state of mind. When this climaxes in Eldridge (Geraghty) being injured and taken home, harsh words are exchanged between him and James which Mackie does nothing to console him about. However, by the end there is almost an entente between Mackie and Renner as the film takes an almost cyclic turn to leave us right back where we started. This is beautifully indicative of the ongoing nature of the Iraqi conflict, and is another piece of expert filmmaking.

Another thing about The Hurt Locker is how authentic it is. While it wasn't filmed in Iraq, the whole thing was shot in Jordan, very close to the Iraqi border, and the cast and crew all experienced life in the Middle East. From the heat to the illnesses to the tension on set which is conveyed to the screen this film is as authentic as safety allows, and this is excellent. When you consider some of the films that The Hurt Locker beat to Best Picture in the year that it was released this should give you some idea of how good it is. I mean Avatar isn't a ‘great’ film in my opinion, but it is the highest grossing film of all-time, and it didn't win Best Picture because The Hurt Locker did. Inglorious Basterds, District 9 and Up are other examples of films nominated for Best Picture that lost out to The Hurt Locker. Bigelow also won Best Director, but if you've already seen it, this is not hard to see why.

There is so much more to say about the Hurt Locker, but to fit it all in would make for very long and tedious reading. There are some very memorable characters, from the little boy ‘Beckham’ who plays such a big part in the later scenes of the film to the surprise appearance from Ralph Fiennes who always manages to brighten my day. There are a lot of parallels to Zero Dark Thirty in The Hurt Locker, and they both have incredible cinematography behind them. Kathryn Bigelow’s footprint on both movies is unmistakable, from the casting of relative unknowns to the reflection of the war in the scenes that follow from the action.

There is little doubt in my mind that The Hurt Locker will be remembered for a long time to come. It is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best films I have seen in a while and I can only encourage you to watch it if you haven’t already.

Zero Dark Thirty - or 'The Bin Laden Film'

Zero Dark Thirty, or ‘the Bin Laden film’ as I seem to be describing it to people lately, tells of the American pursuit of Osama Bin Laden, specifically focusing on the actions of one woman, Maya. It is one of the most widely anticipated and more controversial films of 2012 (released 19^th December) and it is obvious why. Naturally, the theme of hunting down Bin Laden will stir controversy amongst many, but Zero Dark Thirty does an excellent job of keeping this to a minimum.

The first thing to mention about this film is that it is not necessarily a two-and-a-half hour adrenaline filled chase for the most dangerous man in the world. People expecting this (such as my younger brother) will be both disappointed and bored. It is probably better to expect more of a fictional documentary, and that is the best way I can describe it. The climax of the film – storming the house where Bin Laden was shot – is quite thrilling, but the rest of the film reflects the long and arduous struggle for information about Al-Qaeda perfectly. The cinematography of Zero Dark Thirty is very impressive (credit to Greig Fraser), and the director (Kathryn Bigelow, also known for The Hurt Locker) does an excellent job of reflecting a number of aspects of the hunt to the audience. As I mentioned, the struggle for information is one of them, but the best piece of direction for me comes right at the end. After the killing of Bin Laden you’d expect some massive celebration scene, such as at the end of Star Wars, but this isn't the case. Instead, Maya is sitting in a plane and starts to cry, realising perhaps that without this case she has nothing to do and nowhere to go.

This leads me on to the next thing that I immediately considered after watching the film – the lack of more general celebration. There is always a danger with these types of films that they will become less of an informative piece about the hunt for Bin Laden and more of a pro-American propaganda. Zero Dark Thirty does immensely well to avoid this. I can’t recall a single moment when there was any nationalistic undertones to the movie, which is quite a considerable achievement as it would be so easy to turn Zero Dark Thirty into a celebration of the death of Bin Laden. Obviously the creators aren't stupid enough to impose a Salman Rushdie-type backlash against them, and their treatment of this subject is very respectful. There are no vitriolic scenes of joy at the end, and the film remains polite and considered throughout.

The character (because I think she is a character) of Maya is very interesting. On some level it is a surprise that the central figure in this movie is a woman, and I think the decision to write the character as a woman was brilliant. There is a danger with a male lead that there would be vitriolic pro-American propaganda, and by casting a woman the film immediately makes you consider the whole thing a bit more. Jessica Chastain does a very good job as Maya, perfectly showing the range of emotions required. She instantly comes across as a very driven, goal-directed and dedicated woman, but she also expresses discontent at scenes of waterboarding and signs of great burden at the loss of several friends. Paralleling her character perhaps, this marks Chastain’s first major film, and I would advise you to remember the name. I have very little doubt that she will win Best Actress at the Academy Awards in a couple of days.

Zero Dark Thirty has been nominated for five Academy Awards, with Best Actress obviously being one of them. I’m fairly sure no-one reading this will be doing so to see what I think about its chances for Best Film Editing and Bets Sound Editing so I’ll skip over them. It is not surprise that it has been nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. The Academy was always going to nominate Zero Dark Thirty for the first two, just because it’s ‘the Bin Laden film’. To my mind it will win Best Original Screenplay, simply because it was the best original screenplay, but it will face stiff competition from Django Unchained. Best Picture is always a bit of a mystery though. In previous years there have been surprises (The Artist in 2012) and there have been obvious winners (The Return of the King, 2003), and this year has the potential to be both. I’m not going to attempt to call it, nor to tell you what I think about it, but there is no doubt that Zero Dark Thirty is one of the favourites to win.

Zero Dark Thirty is not for everyone though, and I’d only watch it if you are interested in the hunt for Bin Laden. I don’t think it’s the kind of film that you can watch on the basis of general curiosity. You need to engage with it, and there is quite a lot to follow. However, once you get into it, it is very enjoyable and it deserves all the plaudits going its way.