Film 12 - The Hurt Locker (14/01/11)

I have to be honest. The first time I watched this film was on a laptop at a friends house. It's probably not the best way to view the film but I wanted to see it and there was no release date in Australia. The film had actually been listed as direct to DVD until it began winning awards. Hence my reason for not watching it at the cinemas.

The Hurt Locker is a film that I love because of its ability to be both an incredibly intense film but also move at a relatively slow pace. The even cooler thing about the film is that despite its pace I never feel like I'm losing interest as can be the case. It actually speaks well for the quality of the writing, directing and performances of the actors.

It's easy for war films to be all about the kills, because let's be honest that's how the majority of people view war. We see it is a place where people go to fight and kill. But The Hurt Locker shows that war can be seen as a drug for some people, life within war becomes all that some people can bare to live with. It reminds a bit of prisoners who have been incarcerated for a long amount of time upon their release they struggle to intergrate with society and find they commit crimes in order to return to prison life. The Shawshank Redemption shows this perfectly within the character of Brooks.  Though he didn't turn to crime in order to escape non prison life if you get my drift.

The Hurt Locker was a deserved winner of last years Academy Award because it was a completely different look at war. Both from the psychological perspective but also the focus on Bomb Technicians. It's a wonderful film.

Format: Bluray
Venue: The Couch
Degrees of Spearation: 6, Matt Damon starred in The Bourne Ultimatum and also starred in Good Will Hunting alongside Ben Affleck. Affleck starred in The Town alongside Jeremy Renner who stars in The Hurt Locker.