The Hurt Locker

I was anxious when this movie finally hit Greensboro theaters. Sometimes, a smaller independent film will hit the big screen here, then one week later....poof! It's gone. As soon as I saw it hit the listings, I planned my time. A long 2pm-10pm stretch at work was coming, threatening to erase The Hurt Locker from the marquee before I'd even see it. I had a day off Wednesday with a brewday planned, so this film won out over a possible afternoon Greensboro Grasshoppers minor league baseball game as an appetizer to brewing.

The trailer:


I spent a great deal of the film on the edge of my seat holding my breath WAITING for something just awful to happen. The story of an Exploding Ordnance Disposal unit (bomb-defusers) in Iraq and the mindset needed to perform such a task. It's bad enough to be involved in the nerve-racking atmosphere of war, but to add defusing bombs on top of that???? I can't even imagine. Tension. Just tension. An Iraq War film that vividly depicts the soldier's perspective. No politics. No finger wagging. No preaching.

The dichotomy and relationship between the protocol-driven soldier and the reckless "new guy" drives the inner plot. Relationships within the unit, within other soldiers, within the ranks. Can you survive while being the "wild one"? Can you avoid madness?

A "Hurt Locker". What gives? Defined colloquially as putting someone in a world of hurt, putting someone in a hurt locker. Is the locker Iraq itself? Is the locker the soldier's worrying mind? Is the locker a street grid of insurgents hidden among the populace? Is the locker the heavily padded and armored gear worn by the defuser? Is the locker the coming home from war and missing that one thing you do best?

Powerful and tense. Nothing but Full Price here. The dollars coming in for this film are slim. Go see it while you still can!