Last night I watched "The Hurt Locker." I can't say whether I think it deserved the Oscar it won for Best Picture, because I've seen only two of the other contenders, "A Serious Man" and "Up" (both of which I liked—click the titles to see my reviews). I did think it was well done, but it somehow didn't feel like a "best picture" to me.
The story and plot are very intriguing: We follow a bomb defusing squad on their daily missions for the last month of their tour in Iraq in 2004. When all the other soldiers clear out, they go in to try to find and dismantle an explosive. The main guy is played by Jeremy Renner, and he's such a cowboy that I wonder whether the real guys who do this job were angered by his performance. He not only does foolhardy things that put himself in danger, but he also endangers the lives of his team members. He's a loose cannon except when he's doing what he does best: following wires and then snipping the right one. I know they were trying to get at the fact that this is the only thing that this guy does that makes him feel alive and worthy, but it seemed too serious a job to allow any non-seriousness to creep in. I don't recall ever seeing Renner before, but he was just right for this role.
The fear, tedium, stress, and anger of the soldiers is portrayed very credibly. You want to just let them relax and have a decent shower and not have to be scanning the rooftops for snipers. I wasn't surprised to learn that the screenplay was written by a journalist (Mark Boal) embedded with troops in Iraq. It seemed very realistic to me, and not in the least bit sugar-coated or glorified.
The meaning of the title is never explained in the movie, but I found this at the BBC:
"If a bomb goes off, you're going to be in the hurt locker. That's how they used it in Baghdad," Mark Boal told the New Yorker. "It means slightly different things to different people, but all the definitions point to the same idea. It's somewhere you don't want to be."
Although American sports writers have used the phrase for at least two decades— to refer to injured players, or a team languishing in the league—the Oxford English Dictionary's first recorded example dates from 1966, says Fiona McPherson, senior editor of the OED's new words group.
"It's from a Texas newspaper and it says 'If an army marches on its stomach, Old Charlie is in the hurt locker.' Old Charlie is the Viet Cong. It is similar to the phrases 'world of hurt' or 'world of pain.'
The meaning of the title is never explained in the movie
I thought it referred to the box of items that almost killed sergeant James. The one that included bomb parts and his wedding ring.
Posted by: scott | March 21, 2010 at 08:46 AM
I think you kind of have to be a cowboy to be EOD to begin with. Think about it, they play with explosives all day long, what sane person would want to do that? My youngest brother was EOD in the Army, and thankfully he is doing something more sane now, but back in the day ....
Posted by: Stephanie | March 21, 2010 at 04:34 PM
That would make sense, Scott -- I hadn't thought of that.
Posted by: Karen | March 21, 2010 at 04:43 PM
Yeah, I suppose you're right, Stephanie, although the character played by Guy Pearce was not about to endanger any of his fellow soldiers.
Posted by: Karen | March 21, 2010 at 04:44 PM