On March 7th, the Oscars awarded the most lauded prize of all, Best Picture, to a little film called 'The Hurt Locker.' I wasn't surprised, more like relieved that Avatar didn't win. I was seriously going to questions my status as a film buff if it had. It's great that a story about real events and real people won, as it should. James Cameron, I still think there are great things about films not made entirely with a computer.
Anyways, we talked about 'The Hurt Locker' in one of my classes today and one of my students brought up the fact that he heard the guy who wrote it made it all up. Now, part of what he says is true. The screenwriter (and now an Academy Award winner himself) was a freelance journalist who was on assignment with an Army bomb squad in Iraq. It's a work of fiction inspired by his time in Iraq. It doesn't try to tell a true story. It's no "The Blindside " (which also deviates from the work it's based on, but no matter). And sure, parts of the movie were probably amped up to make it entertaining or more suspenseful. Frankly, the ones in 'The Hurt Locker' were probably more entertaining, hence why they are in there. But it captures the difficulty and the strain that the soldiers are under nonetheless.
Still, this movie is one of the classic examples of why people make movies to begin with. To me, there should be only two reasons to make movies: to entertain and to make people think. 'The Hurt Locker' did both of these. The film, which I rented a few weeks ago, was a tense, suspenseful and in-your-face kind of film. I was not bored once during the movie, even during the non-action sequences. The last scene of the film, in which our hero tries to diffuse multiple bombs strapped to a would-be suicide bomber, is the most memorable scene in the entire film.
I had been thinking about this movie a lot lately. Whenever we watch the Today Show in the morning or even when I overhear the nightly news, I have noticed the coverage of the war in Iraq is down some, which, is hopefully a good thing. But that doesn't mean it's not happening. There are still loads of troops over there. So many men and women still wear a uniform and deal with the kind of stuff that goes on in 'The Hurt Locker' such as violence, uprisings by locals and suicide bombers (not to mention the terrible climate). The movie made me think about the war and made me grateful for the people who do volunteer to go over there, even if it's not the most popular thing.
The movie is also very a-political. It's not a movie about the war politics. It's not even a movie about a bunch of guys who diffuse bombs (though there's a lot of that). It's mostly the story of a man who is addicted to war, or rather, addicted to the adreneline he gets from diffusing bombs. It's about what war is like for one individual. It's delivered on a personal level.
Movies should either entertain you or make you think or both. 'The Proposal' entertains me and 'A Single Man' makes me think. Both films were excellent, but since 'The Hurt Locker' did both, I think it was more than deserving. It was not my personal favorite out of the 10 films nominated, but I still think it was an excellent movie to see and one that you will think about when it's over.
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