The Hurt Locker film review - the dangerous job of bomb disarmament

The Hurt Locker was the winner of the Best Picture award at the 82nd annual Academy Awards. It also won for various other categories including Best Director Kathryn Bigelow. The Hurt Locker movie won 6 Academy Awards in all.

This film, The Hurt Locker is not for the faint at heart. A fictional depiction of the war in Iraq, it is presented in documentary style with the film editing and offers a very realistic platform. The director of the film, The Hurt Locker has spoken about telling the story of individuals who have what is perhaps the most dangerous job in the whole world. That job is bomb disarmament.

The story begins with following a team leader and his two colleagues as they set about this dangerous work of bomb disarmament. Tragically the team leader is killed. There are sad scenes of his personal affects being gathered and packed to be sent home to his family.

Clearly, his colleagues had an excellent rapport with him. They grieve him and will miss him.

Shortly after, the team leader is replaced by a much more arrogant man First Class Sargeant William James (played by Jeremy Renner) and his colleagues have a lot more difficulty getting along with him.

It is so important to be able to trust your partners in this type of work and they are presented with a man who just likes to do his own thing. He even throws his headset to the ground to discourage the needed communication with his partners.

While he is very arrogant, he is also incredibly highly skilled and very gifted in his work. His work is of course heroic as he is able to disarm bombs with quick precision and get many people out of danger. Included among the missions for Sargeant William James are the disarmament of car bombs as well as bombs on suicide bombers who regret the decision to place a bomb on the body and want to relinquish it.

During The Hurt Locker film, it is noted that William James has disarmed over 800 bombs during his career. The film depicts only one of his failed attempts and it is very gripping and sad.

The film, The Hurt Locker will definitely keep your attention. You'll be very focused on what is going on from beginning to end.

Rated: R

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and others

I rate it: 4/5 stars ****