It seems like for every war, there is a great film about it: Saving Private Ryan for World War II, Apocalypse Now (or Platoon) for Vietnam, or Three Kings for the Gulf War. The current conflict had so far only made for films no one cared to see (Stop- Loss, Redacted, etc.), but The Hurt Locker is a worthy choice to be the film of the Iraq War.
The film follows a U.S. Army Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit as they try to defuse explosives throughout Iraq. We get an intense, up close look at what the unit goes through on a daily basis; both the danger and excitement of getting shot at and defusing explosives, as well as the mental pain they try to deal with.
Most recent war-related films have failed because they hammer such an obvious anti-war stance at the viewer; here, director Kathryn Bigelow presents the physical and mental demands of war matter-of-factly, thus allowing film-goers to simply enjoy a dynamic thriller if they want.
The two leads, Jeremy Renner, as the gung-ho bomb technician, and Anthony Mackie, as the cautious Sgt., are great. The only weakness with the film is that the structure is, at times, too much like a tv procedural crime show; the film goes from explosive to explosive to explosive, and it feels like the character development could have used just a little more depth. That keeps the film from being a classic, but overall it is certainly a very good film.
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