The Hurt Locker

How can a woman director create such a film ? A film that is as much about soldiers as about a man's passion. This was the question I asked myself when the movie credits started rolling after the movie ended. The film is about the soldiers in a bomb squad in Iraq who are called on to disable bombs in the city mostly. It is about their emotions and their behavior in a land where they can die anytime. Although the film is very good, but I personally do not think it to be an Oscar winner. You will find the reasons later.

The movie has some very engaging scenes where the protagonist William James tries to diffuse bombs after bombs. Those scenes are interesting at first and then they lose the intensity for they seem to be overdone. But there is something that still attracts the viewer. And that I would say has to be the uncanny character of William James. Jeremy Renner has done extremely well to portray his character of William James. The man has a passion to win over bombs. When he is doing his work, he seems to be at so much ease. He does not feel the danger of losing his life when a bomb explodes. He is just engaged in diffusing bombs. His passion is evident when one of his team member finds out bomb parts hidden under his bed and he explains their presence as a souvenir collection. Not that he does not have a mind or heart. He is very pragmatic. One of the memorable scenes where he removes his bomb protection suit and says "There's enough bang in there to send us all to Jesus. If I'm going to die, I'm going to die comfortable." For him, war is a drug.

Some of the scenes capture the life of soldiers in Iraq. It displays their mental state. Some of the dialogues are crisp and unforgettable. Like when one of the senior officers asks "What's the best way to... go about disarming one of these things?" and then James replies saying "The way you don't die, sir.". The movie is not about the reasons behind the war or the state of people living in Iraq. Though some of the scenes do capture a little bit of that and it deeply hurts to even think about it.

But Hurt Locker does not deserve an Oscar. Avatar with all its effects and the hard work behind it definitely had to be the one. Even though Avatar seemed like a commercial film rather than a critical one, the amount of work and innovative thinking gone into making it certainly deserve an Oscar. And I am not saying that Avatar is boring or bad. When I saw it the second time, I liked it even more and was able to find new things that I did not notice in my first time. There is so attention to detail in Avatar that you will surely miss it when you watch it the first time.

Now looking forward to watch another male dominated movie - Invictus.