It's not supposed to be this way. The strongest contender for the best film of 2009 is not supposed to come out during the dog days of summer. And yet, here it is. Am I getting ahead of myself, with four months left in the year? Maybe so, but I can't help it. The Hurt Locker has everything you could want in a movie. It's compelling and dramatic, it's frightening and intense, it's full of wisdom and honesty, and it's also exciting as hell. This is a sensational movie.

Hollywood's attempts to bring the current Iraq War to the screen have been met mainly with indifference by either critics or audiences. The Hurt Locker quite brilliantly sidesteps the biggest problem that hindered movies like Lions for Lambs, The Kingdom, and Stop-Loss. The problem? A lot of those movies carried an obvious political agenda. The solution that screenwriter Mark Boal (who worked on an earlier Iraq-themed film, In the Valley of Elah) comes up with? He completely dodges all personal beliefs and hidden agendas, and just gives us the reality of the battlefield. The soldiers in this movie have a job to do on the battlefield, and they are here to do it. They are devoted to their duty, and that is it. It's an unflinching look into their lives. There is no real structured plot that leads us from point A to point B. The movie throws us into the middle of their tour of duty (they have 38 days left in their rotation we're informed early on, and a subtitle keeps track of how many days are left), and gives it to us straight. It's an intense slice of life that few of us ever get to see, and director Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break, Strange Days) creates a total sensory experience to the point that we find ourselves going through the same emotions as the characters up on the screen.

The focus on the film is on the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) squad of the Bravo Company. They are called to dismantle bombs that are discovered on the streets, in cars, and in one particularly intense scene, attached to an innocent person. At the beginning of the film, the squad is made up of lead technician Sergeant Matt Thompson (Guy Pearce), Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie), and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty). It's clear they have a close bond, so we feel Sanborn and Eldridge's pain when Matt is killed in a failed attempt to dismantle a bomb. A new member joins the squad in his place, Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner). He's brash, cocky, and in the eyes of his fellow squad members, dangerous. This is nothing new in a war movie, but the way the screenplay handles their relationship is. James is not your usual cocky young recruit. He doesn't do what he does for glory. He does things his own way, but we never get a sense he's trying to show up his comrades. The movie shows how all three men handle the situation they're in differently. All three of them, and the way they react to the war feels natural, instead of like war cliches. We feel like we're listening to actual stories from the battlefield, and the movie never once goes for manipulation or bombastic showmanship.

The movie showcases the different missions that the men are sent on, as well as their private time back at the base. The mission scenes are done in an almost documentary fashion, and we feel the tension and fear that the men do. They are constantly being watched by locals, who view their efforts to dismantle the bomb from the street corners, house windows, and from the rooftops. The men are never sure who to trust, and neither are we. This is how the movie puts us into the middle of the action. There is no central villain figure lurking behind the scenes, planting bombs. We feel just as lost and confused in this strange foreign land as they do. When they return to the base, they're allowed to be themselves, and we can identify with them. Eldridge visits with a on-site therapist (Christian Camargo), and talks about his fears of dying in battle, thinking that it's almost inevitable. Sanborn wonders who outside of his family would miss him if something were to happen to him during his tour. And James feels torn between his job, and the wife and baby he has waiting for him back home. Once again, the movie does not take a wrong step here. The emotions are genuine, and avoid heavy-handed melodrama. We're not being manipulated to feel for them, we're listening to stories that genuinely feel heartfelt.

The film has a somewhat unstructured tone. There's no real overall plot to carry it. Sometimes, a single scene seems to almost be a self-contained short film. One of my favorite moments is when the team comes across another American squad, who is stranded in the middle of the desert. As James and his men attempt to help the other team, they are suddenly attacked by snipers. This leads to a slow-burning, dragged-out, but certainly not boring sequence where the two teams must work together to survive. It's a fantastic example of tight editing, precision pacing, and a genuine sense of dread and fear that the scene creates. Another fantastic sequence concerns a subplot, where James befriends a young local boy named Beckham (Christopher Sayegh). The ultimate fate of the child (which I will not reveal) is one of the most chilling sequences in recent memory, and when James comes across his "replacement" just a few scenes later, we share his disgust. The Hurt Locker contains more individual scenes of raw power than most movies contain in their entire running time.

The cast, in turn, deliver some rightfully knock out performances. In a rare movie, big name actors like Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes (who appears as the head of the stranded team) are placed in cameos, while relative unknowns (although some of them have been working in small roles for years) get the leads. These are explosive roles, and equally powerful performances. Renner, Mackie, and Geraghty are intense and real here. They don't seem like actors stepping into the boots of soldiers. We can see the exhaustion on their faces, and it's credible to believe that these men have spent the past year or so living through hell. What's amazing is how the performances and the movie itself keep us on edge the entire time. When the movie is over, we feel just as emotionally and physically drained as the characters must feel. I watch so many movies where I just don't feel anything. Watching a movie like this is not only rare, it's worth celebrating.
The Hurt Locker is indeed worth celebrating, and should definitely be seen as it is slowly brought into wider release. Summit Entertainment (best known for bringing us the disappointing teen vampire romance, Twilight, and its upcoming sequels) deserves admiration for bringing this small movie out to the masses. This is one of the best movies about war to come along in years, but you don't have to be a fan of the genre to enjoy it. To be honest, I knew very little about the movie, and wasn't expecting to be completely captivated. Those expectations were met and surpassed five minutes in.

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