Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Hurt Locker


As many of you know I am not a big fan of going to the movies. Spending $12 to pad the pockets of these Hollywood scumbags is not my idea of a good time. However once and awhile I will go against my better judgement and go catch a flick. This was the case a few weeks ago when Neil and I found ourselves wandering around NYC with some time to kill. Neil is a movie conesuire and after knowing him for around twenty years he knows what kinds of films I like. He suggested that we go see The Hurt Locker and I didn't object. I had never heard of this movie but Neil mentioned a few taglines that sold me on it; "non-stop action," and "war."
We walked into the Times Square theater and it was packed. We had the option of sitting extremely close to the screen or farther back with the only downside being that a small handrail was partially obscurring my view...we chose the latter. With the pesky handrail adding another
dimension to my movie watching experience the film started. The moment the lights dimmed and The Hurt Locker began the excitement and nail biting started didn't stop until about 45 minutes after the movie ended.
I had never heard of, or seen any of the actors before. The renegade company leader played by Jeremy Renner was a riveting character. His antics provided much of the excitement as well as contributing to my incesant nail biting. My favorite person in the movie was Sergeant JT
Sanborn, played by Anthony Mackie. This guy was the real deal and did a tremendous job. He captured the feeling and emotion of a soldier faced with the never ending danger of trying to survive in a warzone while having to deal with a careless company leader, (Jeremy Renner's character.) To my surprise there was no political bias in this film, it simply gave an unfiltered view of the day to day actions of an Army bomb squad unit in Iraq. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone, whether you are interested in war films or not we all can relate to the human experience found in The Hurt Locker.
This might sound cliche and cheesy, but after leaving the theater I had a newfound respect for our military and the remarkable job they do. One aspect that I had always known about but never really thought about was how a solider must make split second decisions with so many mitigating factors. He/she has to deduce how their actions can positively or negatively affect their own lives as well the lives of their fellow soliders at the drop of a hat. The incredible stress that
this puts on a person is incomprehensible and ever the more reason why post traumatic stress syndrome is very real and affects many heroes returning from Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. I think it is very important that we all see the The Hurt Locker, and allow ourselves to be enveloped into the movie and try to feel and understand what these soldiers have to deal with. Unlike most films that are purely for entertainment, I truly believe that this one serves a more important
purpose and should be seen by all.

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