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A Bomb Squad's Hair-Trigger Terrors
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"War is a drug," writes Christopher Hedges in the epigram that precedes "The Hurt Locker." Someone else described war as "interminable boredom punctuated by moments of stark terror." Director Kathryn Bigelow ("Point Break") comprehends both of those observations and conveys them in this captivating, completely immersive action thriller.
"The Hurt Locker" is set in Iraq in 2004, but it transcends time and place, and in the process attains something universal and enduring.
In the opening scene, a winsome little robot goes about its business in a dry and dusty place in a nearly dialogue-free sequence of startling visual eloquence. The mechanized device is used for ferreting out bombs, and when a wheel suddenly breaks, one of its human counterparts must suit up and risk losing his life. For the next two hours, viewers are plunged into the disorienting world of the soldiers who disarm what Americans have come to know as IEDs or roadside bombs, neither of which term does full justice to the carnage they inflict.
The men leading the audience through those tense, tautly orchestrated encounters are the soldiers of Bravo Company, which as "The Hurt Locker" begins has 38 days to go in its rotation. Spec. Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) is the bespectacled nice guy. Anthony Mackie plays Sgt. J.T. Sanborn, possessed of the somber, watchful demeanor of a professional quietly observing protocol. The group's leader -- and "The Hurt Locker's" charismatic, often confounding protagonist -- is Staff Sgt. William James, an adrenaline junkie and alpha dog played in an astonishing breakout performance by Jeremy Renner.
"The Hurt Locker" owes much of its success to its script, which was written by journalist Mark Boal after he was embedded with an Army explosive-ordnance disposal squad for several weeks. These clearly are men Boal knows intimately, from their gallows-humor bonhomie to their whiskey-fueled bonding sessions.
-- Ann Hornaday
The Hurt Locker R, 130 minutes Contains war violence and profanity. Area theaters.
