Review: "The Hurt Locker"
Upon suggestion of my flist last night, I watched The Hurt Locker. (Turns out that after I went to sleep, The Runaways scored an upset victory, but it was too late. Ah well, there's always tonight!)
It's a very good movie. Well made, well acted, well directed. But I can't shake the feeling I've seen it a dozen times before.
I guess after seeing Generation Kill I don't need another "war is a drug" movie. I get it, you know? And I just couldn't bring myself to care about the protagonist at all. Yeah, yeah, another poor liddle boyman gets hooked on adrenaline and endorphins and can no longer get it up for normal boring civilian life. CRY MOAR. You have a wife (or is it ex-wife? This guy is so disconnected that he can't be bothered to keep up with his own marital status). You have a son. Man the fuck up and BE THERE FOR THEM. Sure, yeah, by being in Iraq you're sending home a paycheck, but the people who love you need you in their lives, not just your money in their bank accounts.
Check this out: the protagonist, James, shows his team member, Sanborn, a photo of his son. Sanborn says his own girlfriend is talking about having a kid. Sanborn, who has a few brain cells to rub together and a sense of human decency, says he isn't ready for fatherhood. James urges him, "Give her the sperm!" Not "raise a kid". Not "be a father". Not even "make a baby". James talks about it as if he handed a woman a condom full of fresh jizz and hightailed it out of there. I can't be arsed to give a shit about a guy like that.
Yeah, yeah again; I know I'm not supposed to "like" him. That's not what the movie is about. It's about how war drives you nuts, and I guess that can not be said too often or in too many different ways. I guess I'm just tired of movies about the woes of boymen who won't grow the fuck up. You want a challenge in your life, boyman? How about the challenge of raising a child to be a wonderful adult? Oh, waaaah, I hear you whine. That's boooooring! Fine. GET A FUCKING HOBBY. Drive ATVs over dunes until you roll over and break your fucking neck. Learn downhill skiiing. Jump out of a fucking airplane. There are plenty of ways for you to get an adrenaline fix in your spare time that still allow you to give your wife and kid the attention they deserve. But my job fulfills me, you whine. It's the only thing I'm good at! I admit that is a fine and wonderful thing; very few people get to say that. However, I also bet that the skills and expertise you gained in the military could get you a really good gig back home. You could become a cop; with your background you could be SWAT or whatever. You'd even get to carry a gun and risk your life every day. WOO HOO!
You know who the real hero is? Your wife, whose name we never learn (though she does get named in the credits). You say of her, "She's loyal." Damn right she is. She doesn't have the option to run away. She knows she has responsibilities and she fulfills them, no matter what she'd rather be doing. Hey, she may even have a satisfying, challenging career of her own; we viewers don't get to see that. I hope she's having a torrid affair with some man or woman who appreciates her while you're off getting your jollies by snipping wires.
Real life. Adult responsibilities. Sticking it out through tedium and toil, for the sake of your loved ones. Those are the heroes we need more movies about.
Now let's go meta and talk about Kathryn Bigelow. She is a very good director, and I applaud her achievement as the first female director to receive acknowledgement by the Old Boys' Network of the Academy Awards. But you'll notice she did so by making a Dick Flick (the testosterone version of a Chick Flick). No, I certainly do not expect or desire every woman in cinema to be a Credit To Her Gender by making only Wimmen-Positive Films. Bigelow makes the movies she wants to make, and that's exactly what I want her to do. I mean, hey, she wrote and directed one of my favorite movies of all time! But I suspect her penchant for making movies with blood and explosions and a cast list heavily weighted with testosterone is one factor in her success. She works within the system. She doesn't wave her ovaries in your face. She's "one of the guys", get it? I.e., NOT A THREAT TO YOUR TESTICLES. (And I bet it doesn't hurt that she's easy on the eyes.)
Now, let's imagine a different film. According to the Urban Dictionary, "hurt locker" is defined as "a period of immense, inescapable physical or emotional pain". So we can use the same title. The protagonist is a woman, but since the military calls people by their last names, we can still call her James. Hey, she can even still be in EOD -- that's a job that isn't closed to women, which is pretty fucking funny considering that women aren't supposed to be in combat. But they can get blown up by bombs, sure! James is very good at her job; she loves it. But war is driving her nuts. Not only does she risk her neck every day, but she does so in the face of constant sexual harrassment and brutal hazing. Hey, it's all in fun, right? She's "one of the guys", so she gets and gives the same kind of taunts and bullshit the guys do. Fine. Cool. I get that. But there are one or two guys who really resent the fact that she's not only very good at her job, but lets everyone know it and expects to be treated as a leader. She's not deferential enough. She's "uppity". She's "cocky". She's a "bitch". So one night, after a few too many drinks, they rape her. And nobody does a thing. She tries to go to the shrink (there's a colonel in the original movie who I think is a shrink?) and to her commanding officer to report it. She goes through channels. She is a good soldier and believes in the system. But she gets stonewalled at every turn. She gets told it was just boys being boys. Come on, she was drinking too, wasn't she? She was making sexual taunts. Is she absolutely sure she didn't consent at some point? As for her "buddies" who work with her, they turn a blind eye. They close ranks. It was just in fun, blowing off steam, she shouldn't make such a big deal of it! She was probably asking for it anyway, the slut. Suddenly, she finds herself not getting the plum patrols anymore. Being passed up for promotion. Not being included in the rowdy off hours fun with the rest of the guys. She has no support and nowhere to turn, so she dives into her work, taking more and more risks, going out without the bomb suit, putting her pistol to the forehead of a suspected insurgent...
Isn't that a movie you'd like to see? Hey, how come nobody's ever made that movie? Do you think it would win an Oscar? Hmmm?
Besides, for some reason I kept getting the impression that the whole flick smelled of feet.
It's a very good movie. Well made, well acted, well directed. But I can't shake the feeling I've seen it a dozen times before.
I guess after seeing Generation Kill I don't need another "war is a drug" movie. I get it, you know? And I just couldn't bring myself to care about the protagonist at all. Yeah, yeah, another poor liddle boyman gets hooked on adrenaline and endorphins and can no longer get it up for normal boring civilian life. CRY MOAR. You have a wife (or is it ex-wife? This guy is so disconnected that he can't be bothered to keep up with his own marital status). You have a son. Man the fuck up and BE THERE FOR THEM. Sure, yeah, by being in Iraq you're sending home a paycheck, but the people who love you need you in their lives, not just your money in their bank accounts.
Check this out: the protagonist, James, shows his team member, Sanborn, a photo of his son. Sanborn says his own girlfriend is talking about having a kid. Sanborn, who has a few brain cells to rub together and a sense of human decency, says he isn't ready for fatherhood. James urges him, "Give her the sperm!" Not "raise a kid". Not "be a father". Not even "make a baby". James talks about it as if he handed a woman a condom full of fresh jizz and hightailed it out of there. I can't be arsed to give a shit about a guy like that.
Yeah, yeah again; I know I'm not supposed to "like" him. That's not what the movie is about. It's about how war drives you nuts, and I guess that can not be said too often or in too many different ways. I guess I'm just tired of movies about the woes of boymen who won't grow the fuck up. You want a challenge in your life, boyman? How about the challenge of raising a child to be a wonderful adult? Oh, waaaah, I hear you whine. That's boooooring! Fine. GET A FUCKING HOBBY. Drive ATVs over dunes until you roll over and break your fucking neck. Learn downhill skiiing. Jump out of a fucking airplane. There are plenty of ways for you to get an adrenaline fix in your spare time that still allow you to give your wife and kid the attention they deserve. But my job fulfills me, you whine. It's the only thing I'm good at! I admit that is a fine and wonderful thing; very few people get to say that. However, I also bet that the skills and expertise you gained in the military could get you a really good gig back home. You could become a cop; with your background you could be SWAT or whatever. You'd even get to carry a gun and risk your life every day. WOO HOO!
You know who the real hero is? Your wife, whose name we never learn (though she does get named in the credits). You say of her, "She's loyal." Damn right she is. She doesn't have the option to run away. She knows she has responsibilities and she fulfills them, no matter what she'd rather be doing. Hey, she may even have a satisfying, challenging career of her own; we viewers don't get to see that. I hope she's having a torrid affair with some man or woman who appreciates her while you're off getting your jollies by snipping wires.
Real life. Adult responsibilities. Sticking it out through tedium and toil, for the sake of your loved ones. Those are the heroes we need more movies about.
Now let's go meta and talk about Kathryn Bigelow. She is a very good director, and I applaud her achievement as the first female director to receive acknowledgement by the Old Boys' Network of the Academy Awards. But you'll notice she did so by making a Dick Flick (the testosterone version of a Chick Flick). No, I certainly do not expect or desire every woman in cinema to be a Credit To Her Gender by making only Wimmen-Positive Films. Bigelow makes the movies she wants to make, and that's exactly what I want her to do. I mean, hey, she wrote and directed one of my favorite movies of all time! But I suspect her penchant for making movies with blood and explosions and a cast list heavily weighted with testosterone is one factor in her success. She works within the system. She doesn't wave her ovaries in your face. She's "one of the guys", get it? I.e., NOT A THREAT TO YOUR TESTICLES. (And I bet it doesn't hurt that she's easy on the eyes.)
Now, let's imagine a different film. According to the Urban Dictionary, "hurt locker" is defined as "a period of immense, inescapable physical or emotional pain". So we can use the same title. The protagonist is a woman, but since the military calls people by their last names, we can still call her James. Hey, she can even still be in EOD -- that's a job that isn't closed to women, which is pretty fucking funny considering that women aren't supposed to be in combat. But they can get blown up by bombs, sure! James is very good at her job; she loves it. But war is driving her nuts. Not only does she risk her neck every day, but she does so in the face of constant sexual harrassment and brutal hazing. Hey, it's all in fun, right? She's "one of the guys", so she gets and gives the same kind of taunts and bullshit the guys do. Fine. Cool. I get that. But there are one or two guys who really resent the fact that she's not only very good at her job, but lets everyone know it and expects to be treated as a leader. She's not deferential enough. She's "uppity". She's "cocky". She's a "bitch". So one night, after a few too many drinks, they rape her. And nobody does a thing. She tries to go to the shrink (there's a colonel in the original movie who I think is a shrink?) and to her commanding officer to report it. She goes through channels. She is a good soldier and believes in the system. But she gets stonewalled at every turn. She gets told it was just boys being boys. Come on, she was drinking too, wasn't she? She was making sexual taunts. Is she absolutely sure she didn't consent at some point? As for her "buddies" who work with her, they turn a blind eye. They close ranks. It was just in fun, blowing off steam, she shouldn't make such a big deal of it! She was probably asking for it anyway, the slut. Suddenly, she finds herself not getting the plum patrols anymore. Being passed up for promotion. Not being included in the rowdy off hours fun with the rest of the guys. She has no support and nowhere to turn, so she dives into her work, taking more and more risks, going out without the bomb suit, putting her pistol to the forehead of a suspected insurgent...
Isn't that a movie you'd like to see? Hey, how come nobody's ever made that movie? Do you think it would win an Oscar? Hmmm?
Besides, for some reason I kept getting the impression that the whole flick smelled of feet.