Man at Work: Quarter Bar conversation about The Hurt Locker
Posted on | July 17, 2009 | No Comments
Ah, time for another haphazard chapter in the Lessons for Quarter Bar series. My surrogate brothers and I went to the 7:30PM showing of Kathryn Bigelow’s new film, The Hurt Locker, at the Landmark’s Sunshine Theater last night. After the two hour and eleven minute long movie, we hopped in a cab to Brooklyn and sat down at David Moo’s bar on 20th and 5th ave.
After a couple of drinks and shot of Hornitos the conversation turned to the movie. The friends with jobs had already left so it was just myself, my friend, Al, who barbacks at 1/4 and David. The film is about about an Army bomb disposal unit who has just gotten a new bomb diffuser after the original, played by Guy Pierce, is killed in the first set piece of the movie. It’s been playing for a while and has gotten a good amount of buzz, but in a season with Transformers and Bruno and other more popular movies, a work of art like The Hurt Locker will largely go unnoticed.
Obviously the most intriguing aspect of the film is that is focused on bomb disposal, which as Al put it is “the new frontline”. At one point in the movie as the three man team consisting of an intelligence officer, a specialist, and the bomb diffuser, a staff sergeant is rolling out on a mission in their humvee past parked tanks and armored personnel carriers, the specialist sarcastically spouts off “Man, I’m glad we have all these tanks here just in case the Russians attack and we get into a big tank battle!”. We follow this trio, Bravo company, through some very difficult situations in urban Baghdad, bystanders with the potential bomb makers mixed in watching over their efforts to diffuse the complex IED rigs. The tension during these set pieces is enveloping – you feel not only the anxiety of the intelligence officer, Sanborn, and the specialist, Eldridge, as they try to identify threats but the excitement and stress of trying to figure how the hell this IED is rigged up and how to properly diffuse it.
Sgt William James, “who approaches his work more like a jazz musician or an abstract expressionist painter than like a sober technician”, is our guide in the wonderful world of IEDs. A.O. Scott describes him as “a connoisseur, genius, an artist” in his review of the movie. He is exactly right in his analysis of the character. You instantly understand him despite how wild and reckless he is throughout the movie. A large part of this is Jeremy Renner’s performance, which mixes the humor of Jason Bateman (Arrested Development and The Kingdom) with the fearlessness of a Spartan, kind of like a modern day Martin Riggs. His foil, Sanborn, is by the book and looking to get out of Iraq alive and not unlike Murtaugh.
Yet, despite my analogies, there is something extremely fresh about this film, which I didn’t realize until I sat there, my brain lubed with alcohol, talking to Al and David about it. These soldiers aren’t fighting the good fight, they are just fighting. A.O. Scott and other critics pointed to the films reticence, in not taking on the broader issue of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, but I think they miss the subtle commentary that bleeds through these three men just trying to do their job, to fight, to complete their mission with minimal to no casualties and move on. The three men each deal with this plight differently but they all deal with it. They have no greater ideal to fight for, nor are they disillusioned by the politics of the war, but does not mean that it does not affect their psyche and behavior.
“This is our generation’s war film” says Al as I beginning to realize the importance of the movie. I’m not sure he and I are thinking about it in the same way, since it is both a piece of innovative piece of art as well as chronicle of how war has changed and not changed, but I most definitely agree with his statement. Artistically, this film is inventive without losing its footing – the walking contradiction that is Sgt Will James is the best example I can present on this point. Listening to heavy metal and drinking whiskey from the bottle, James’ first move after moving in with Bravo is to push the plywood that protects him from lateral mortar shrapnel away from the window so he can enjoy the sun.
At a less dense level, or shallower level, the movie is still extremely satisfying. Just check out the poster. Oh SHIT!
Oh, and of course, it’s written by Mark Boal.
Tags: AO Scott > Black Metal > David Moo > Generation > IEDs > Innovation > Iraq > Kathyrn Bigelow > Quarter Bar > The Hurt Locker > Work/Life balance
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