Anti-war saga

Kathryn Bigelow translates the blood and gore of war graphically in her unbelievably shattering Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker, says Ervell E. Menezes

Three US soldiers, one black, spend months with the United States Army Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) in Iraq defusing bombs during the 2004 war. It is a dangerous cat and mouse game in the chaos of war with death knocking constantly at the door in The Hurt Locker, a scathing anti-war tract, raw, festering and unbelievably shattering. It won the Best Picture Oscar, this year, scoring over James Cameron’s special effects heavy celestial odyssey Avatar.

It opens with Chris Hedges memorable quote: "The rush of battles is often a potent lethal addiction, for war is a drug." How very true. Based on the life and experiences of Mark Boal, who has written the screenplay, it plunges headlong in that wasteland of sand, a grime reminiscent of The Wasteland.

For these three chocolate-chomping men in a remote-control vehicle, it could well be playing cowboys and Indians in this sand-sprayed, alien inferno.

Staff Sergeant James (Jeremy Renner) has already defused 873 bombs and is still going strong, accompanied by a black (Anthony Mackie) and a third (Brian Geraghty), who are more or less anonymous but they form a rare camaraderie in this cesspool of war. The F-word is bandied about liberally and at one moment Sergeant James discards his protective gear saying, "if I’m going to die I’m going to
do it comfortably."

They are in Bravo company counting the days left for the end of the mission. "Be all you can in the trauma of war," they are told but not all can hold their nerve. Some just buckle under, weep unashamedly. It is a screenplay rich with word pictures and enough dashes of humour/satire. "This one nearly killed me," says one, referring to his wedding ring. Exhaustion is overpowering, so much that James takes a shower with his
uniform on.

Director Kathryn Bigelow is able to delve deep under the skin of these daring men in their suicidal mission. At no moment does she let the attention span flag. On the ball, with an amazing economy of words, one is virtually able to feel the heat and dust, the sweat and grime of these hapless lambs to the slaughter.

Of course, it blandly and blatantly exposes the US yen for meddling in others affairs and may be the incarceration of its servicemen could be a sort of poetic justice. But at least films like these have the gal to question this lopsided logic. Living on the misery of others, they say.

Qudos to Bigelow, who is the former wife of Avatar director James Cameron, for being able to translate the blood and gore of war so very graphically. Jeremy Renner has most of the action but it never feels so and he is well supported by Mackie and Geraghty in this never-to-be-missed anti-war saga.

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