10) The Hurt Locker
The film that led to the first ever Best Director Academy Award win for a female director is a fictional story based on the real-life observations and experiences of screenwriter and journalist Mark Boal, when he was embedded with a US Army EOD team in Iraq in 2004. Kathryn Bigelow helmed the tale with Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty in the roles of front-line military bomb disposal operatives. The film is part study of the war-time conditions facing troops in Iraq, and part psychological study of the type of personality that would choose to face the kind of danger created by bomb violence, and the psychological damage it inflicts.
Opening with the quote: “The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug,” it is clear from the outset that this is a film in which we will watch one man – Sergeant First Class William James (Jeremy Renner) – battle his own demons, while battling a more visible enemy. While the narrative and ‘message’ of the film is something that audiences of war films are perhaps familiar with, it is the nature of the scenes through which that narrative plays out that proves to be a harrowing experience for viewers.
Kathryn Bigelow presents the story in a series of climactic scenes – each more gripping and tense than the last. As violence spirals out of control, and James witnesses greater and greater death and destruction, he begins to struggle with the processing of it all. His seemingly reckless behaviour disturbs his team until they are forced to call his judgement into question – all the while dealing with their own difficulties in dealing with trauma. This is a masterclass from Bigelow, who balances the deliberate ratcheting up of tension against the emotional trauma to these characters, perfectly.
What we are left with is a picture of the irrevocable psychological damage to young men with homes and families and lives ahead of them, and – while it is an important document of the time – you’ll only want to watch it once.
