The Hurt Locker

[chrisfaithalin]

Onwards with my recapping of every Renner movie I watch and today is The Hurt Locker. I'm late to the game on this movie which I will openly admit. When it came out, I did not have a clear understanding of what the film was about so it didn't intrigue me. I honestly thought it was a political movie about the war in Iraq which I was/am not

Comments

[purely_distel]

Absolutely agree with EVERYTHING you've said.

I've been dancing around this movie for weeks now, simply because I wanted to see it for Jer, but I just don't like war films. Mainly for the reasons YOU pointed out. They tend to be either america/*insert country of choosing celebrating itself or the exact opposite and while I am anti-war in general, I know things just aren't that easy, that black or white (even homeland, a show I love, seems too black and white compared to this film).

I finally sat down and watched it yesterday and ... was blown away. By all of it. Yes, my focus was on Jeremy but still ... the entire thing. It was the perfect mix of ... cinema film and documentary. I dislike full-on documentary style films - if I want to watch a documentary, I want it to be a REAL one. But this one felt gritty and sometimes nearly TOO real, while still being ... a cinema film.

It made me feel for all of them ... especially the end scene, where he confesses that maybe, at this point, he can only love one thing - cut - and he is on tour again. I felt like crying then because ... well ... I felt for him, so bad. I mean, after seeing that film I DO actually question how a person can actually go back to an average apple-pie life?! How fucking pointless it all is after living through what they life through (the cereal-isle scene is just a PERFECT example of that) ...

I already ordered it on DVD, I need to show it to my friends ... it was an AMAZING film that deserved EVERY Oscar is got and Jeremy's performance was just as worthy!

[chrisfaithalin]

The cereal scene is amazing! I love that one too. It's so quiet and simple, yet it kicks a massive punch when it's contrasted to all of the crap you just watched for the last hour and a half. It really does almost have a documentary style feel, without getting to that point. The first time watching it was almost uncomfortable because it was so tense and it was so realistic. That's why I didn't think I was going to buy it. But, I couldn't stop thinking about it and wanting to show it to people so of course I had to buy it.

And I agree that war is just not black and white. I'm mostly anti-war as well, but I know that any war there is not clear good or bad side. Also, by not being in it, one can't always completely understand it. I watched the first half season 1 of Homeland. I really need to get back to that show, but I agree, it did have moments that it seemed to not treating the topic as complexly as it should.