The Hurt Locker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, is a movie that has received considerable acclaim and is widely seen as the leading contender for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The reason I haven’t reviewed this movie earlier is that I wanted to watch the movie a second time and reflect on how much the completely unrealistic premises and behaviors take away from this otherwise very highly entertaining movie.

The film starts with the quote: “The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is drug” and follows US Army Sergeant First Class Will James (Jeremy Renner), Sergeant JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) as they go about their EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) missions during their deployment in Iraq. James is a new member of the team and immediately rubs the two other members the wrong way. James revels in the adrenaline rush of disarming explosive devices while his colleagues are persuaded he is going to get them killed through his recklessness.

Simply put, The Hurt Locker is one of the most intense movie in recent memory and will keep you at the edge of your seat through the entire movie. The first sequence of the film is a brilliant introduction and keeps your heart pounding through one of the most tense and suspenseful scene I have seen in a long time. Highly entertaining and action packed from beginning to end, Bigelow also manages to sidestep preaching any cheap political message about the war in Iraq. Numerous familiar faces appears in the movie such as Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, Evangeline Lilly or David Morse. The spotlight, however, rests on the three relatively unknown actors Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty who keep the movie grounded. Renner gives a very good performance as James, a reckless character driven by the adrenaline of combat and numbed by it. Renner shines though when he shows his vulnerable side as a compassionate human being. The movie is truly a character study of SFC William James. He eventually gets to come home but how does a man, who has put his life in intense life or death situations nearly every day for months, adapt to the passive civilian life again? Mackie gives a solid performance as the methodical voice of reason while Geraghty nails the most emotionally vulnerable character of the trio.

By far the biggest issues with the movie are the distracting and absolutely unrealistic situations as well as the lack of credibility from the main character, SFC James. I’m not talking about minor nit-pick offense but major credibility issues. First of all, it is extremely unlikely that an EOD team would ever ride alone especially if they are composed of only three members. They would ride only with heavy escort in a large convoy with at the very least a full infantry platoon to back them up. You will also see numerous times Sanborn and Eldridge trying to secure no less than a couple city blocks all by themselves while the main character goes about his business. This is utter and complete horseshit as this would never ever happen in real life. Again, that heavy escort that is supposed to ride with the EOD team would create a wide perimeter and possibly evacuate the entire neighborhood. Nevertheless, it does make for some highly suspenseful scenes which is probably why Bigelow decided to go that route. The cardinal sin however comes late in the movie when our three characters decide to pursue suspected bombers deep into the city in the middle of the night. Yes… all three of them and without telling any of their fellow soliders. Even better, the three come upon a bifurcation and they decide to split! Yes you read that right dear reader! Each of them goes down his own little alley in the middle of an extremely hostile city at nighttime. There is so many hard-to-believe sequences that I had to make a list:

• First scene of the movie: The C4 has to be cautiously placed on the bomb (using the robot’s “hand”) to minimize collateral damage to buildings and people. Hence, the use of the cartwheel is only a plot device to get the guy killed.
• Half a dozen grunts abandoning their Humvee and huddling together in some type of concrete cave  with no view whatsoever of what’s around them. Completely unrealistic and downright disrespectful of the men serving abroad
• The smoke sequence: I don’t even want to say anything. Utterly ridiculous.
• Same sequence, a little later: A dozen grunts all standing around and huddled together watching while a potential suicide bomb car suddenly appears and accelerates toward James: Again complete and utter BS. Soldiers would never just stand around in the middle of the street, doing nothing but watch the EOD guy do his job while in a hostile city. In real life, they would have set up a defensive perimeter, have marksmen on over-watch and soldiers ready to intercept any suspect cars or people getting too close to them. In real life, that car would have been been riddled with bullet within 100 meters and never made it past them unscathed. Again, another plot device to put James in a tense situation.
• That priceless sniping scene: EOD bubba just picks up a Barrett .50 cal and starts killing people a mile away like he went through sniper school. Extremely unrealistic in the realm of reality.
• James goes AWOL in the middle of the night and sneaks into the city by himself. Not only does he not get killed, but he gets to come back through the front gate with no consequences whatsoever. In real life, no one would ever even dare venture outside the gates, and trying to sneak in or out would most likely result in one’s death
• Near the end, a Vietnam era UH-1 Huey helicopter is used to evac Eldridge. I thought this movie was about the Iraq war?
• A man strapped to a metallic cage with a bomb inside and all of that, against his consent?!? I will have seen it all.

How unrealistic was SFC James behavior in the movie? Let’s just say that in real life, a guy acting like he does would eventually get himself killed and not necessarily by enemy fire (something hinted at in the movie). That’s how unrealistic his behavior was. Bigelow really sacrificed any semblance of realism to extract every single ounce of cheap entertainment she could get. Is the movie entertaining? Yes but at what cost?

A thrilling, tense and action-packed war movie from beginning to end. I have to dock off at least two full grades though because the movie is utterly unrealistic just for the sake of cheap thrills.

B+

Notes: Rated R for war violence and language, 131 minutes.