On the other hand, as someone who has served in the US Military, the movie could be deemed a complete offense to our Men and Women in the armed forces. Folks, the devil is in the details. Many war movies fall victim to over-glorification. The Hurt Locker however, seems to blow things up (pun intended) to an almost comical proportion. The film centers around a team of EOD Soldiers (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) that are based in Iraq. That in itself should be a pretty good clue to any soldier, of any branch, including those serving in EOD, to be leery. EOD is an extremely slow and tedious job. We’re talking about disarming and removing explosives, people. That generally doesn’t entail speeding down the freeway, fighting ninjas or steamy sex scenes with super models. Not that The Hurt Locker entails any of those things, but it couldn’t have hurt….locker. (sorry) So many details were so far-fetched, you could have added any number of fantasies and not watered down the plot. Apparently, Hollywood heard the word bomb and saw money signs. (Isn’t that usually how it works?)
This movie is a very inaccurate depiction of the reality of modern warfare for an EOD team. Hell, it’s an incredibly inaccurate depiction of modern warfare in general. Yes, there are moments of heated battle that are fast-paced and life-threatening, and our soldiers bravely march into them with honor and respect, but the truth is, The Hurt Locker did a terrible job at conveying how those moments of peril are actually faced. Jeremy Renner portrays a somewhat sociopathic, anti-hero, leading his EOD team into more-than-questionable situations. Most, if not all, REAL military protocol is ignored throughout the film and the viewer is left holding their breath with a bloated sense of gratefulness to the military. While I believe we should be grateful to individuals that serve their community and country by placing themselves in the line of duty, I don’t think it’s fair to us or those noble men and women to exaggerate their roles. Though it seems to take a road less traveled, The Hurt Locker is yet another glorification of war produced by an entity (Hollywood) that continues to care more about filling seats and burning Benjamins, than reaching the world with something real. And remember, the road less traveled is still a traveled road.
The flip side to all of this, of course, is… IT’S A MOVIE! Who cares how real it is? The writers and directors and producers did not market this as “The Hurt Locker – A Documentary”. If someone did make an accurate depiction of EOD, or modern warfare for that matter, the audience would be bored to death. Imagine watching a group of ammunition technical officers spend countless hours piecing apart a bundle of wires and then filing shitloads of paperwork. Every now and then, a gun will fire in the distance. I would be snoring before the beginning credits. We don’t go to movies to be reminded of the lives we lead. In most cases, we go to movies to be taken away from our reality. THAT is why we have Hollywood, a city of beautiful lies. Crazy, magnificent, and seemingly mysterious things DO happen in this world, there is no denying that. Sometimes, our greatest attempts to escape our lives fall short to those times we simply open our eyes and see the beauty in front of us. The Hurt Locker may not be the whole truth, but it certainly contains a piece of the pie. Take a bite, chew well, swallow, and keep searching. You’ll find what you’re looking for.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Hurt Locker as well, and was enlightened in a less than cordial way how offensive the inaccuracy is to soldiers. -Which is fine, I think I’d be angry too. I wonder though, how much reality must be suspended to engage an audience enough so they will want to discover truth in a work of fiction?