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The only thing I knew about The Hurt Locker before going to see it was that was about a bomb squad unit in Iraq. The accolades were rolling in from all the critics, so Ric and I sought it out (it's in Brea if you've got a chance to check it out) and are glad we did. We have a friend whose experiences may have been completely different when taken literally, but ring true in spirit with some of the themes presented in this movie.

Yes, it is about a bomb squad, and it's counting down the days to the end of its deployment. That sounds a little bit too much like any generic action movie, especially the ones where cops are counting down to retirement, but thankfully, this film isn't in the hands of someone like Michael Bay. It's actually helmed by writer Mark Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow, neither of whom were familiar to me until I looked them up and found out that Boal penned In the Valley of Elah (another movie about the military), and Bigelow directed Point Break, Strange Days, and K-19 (wasn't that a favorite of yours, Nobody?). Interesting. Well anyway, it does start out a little bit roughly. The protagonist, James, starts work with the bomb squad, and does things his own way. The lack of adherence to procedure might have been written to show how smart he is, but all I read in it was selfishness and a disregard for the safety of his squad. There was also a Colonel that sauntered in once in a while to sound very cliche. It got me worried.

But, while there are a couple of familiar war movie plot points in The Hurt Locker, it really does feel like part of a new genre of war movie. Instead of the usual patterns, this movie develops its characters not by dialog, but by action. There really isn't all that much important dialog. It's what each of the characters do, and the setting of the situation itself, that develop them. Ric and I both agreed that we felt like the characters were all completely developed (except perhaps the character of Sanborn, who seemed to be set up to only react to other characters), even though it never felt like the movie was actively trying to achieve it. The movement of the story often feels a bit like a documentary. One hardly ever feels as if the actors are playing to an audience, or that specific themes are heavy-handed. It was really refreshing that the movie wasn't about star-power, either. Most of the lead actors are established actors, but not A-listers. That makes them feel like regular guys, and less like people trying to win Oscars. The A-listers do show up, but more in bit parts, and since they are so unexpected, they are almost unrecognizable in some cases.

Well, all of this writing isn't really seeming to do justice to what was going on inside my brain after I saw this movie, so I'm going to wrap this up because it's just not worth writing when what you're saying isn't achieving what you want. Let me just say that it was the very last portion that clenched it for me. There's a scene of someone in a cereal aisle at a grocery store that resonates so much with my perception of my friends who have come home from Iraq that it made the whole movie worth it just to see that one scene. There may have been some liberties taken with action sequences, both in reality and in camera work, but those were easily dismissible when compared with the overall feel of the movie. This will definitely be on my list of favorites come the end of 2009.