August 22, 2009

Hurt Locker hurts





I never paid much attention to the Iraq war. US was doing what it did best(mess up things). some directors thought they'd make movies out of it. There they go again, I thought. The Battered hero waving the striped flag and all. I saw 'The hurt Locker' and realised how grossly mistaken I was. Iraqi citizens and American soldiers are at the recieving end of the whole mess that is Iraq War. No day goes without a bomb blast in Iraq. Car bomb,truck bomb,human bomb...




The story follows the life of an elite bomb disposal squad in Iraq. The movie uses documentary style camera work that lends a frighteningly real look to the movie. Even the bomb explosions are real! Jeremy Rimmer replaces Guy Pearce who gets killed in a failed EOD mission.His tactics don't go down too well with his team member, Anthony Mackie who even contemplates killing him citing a 'detonator misfire'. The young Brian Geraghty is shown as a rookie with not much combat experience. All actors play their parts flawlessly, especially Jeremy rimmer who plays his part with precision(he worked with a real EOD team for the movie).The iraqis are played by actual War refugees. The whole movie was shot in Jordan very close to the Iraqi border Had it not been for Ralph Fiennes and guy Pearce in guest roles I'd have actually believed the whole thing as true!


Although there are quite a few tense moments in the movie, the one where Jeremy finds a whole web of IEDs shook me. The damage that can be done with that kind of ammo...



The last war movie I really liked was 'Saving Private Ryan' with the most spot on depiction of Normandy Invasion. This movie makes it(but does not displace SPR) to my favorites list.


Great Watch.

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