The Hurt Locker ***** (2008, Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse) – Classic Movie Review 549

Director Kathryn (Point Break) Bigelow’s sensationally sizzling 2008 battlefield movie follows the story of an elite US Army bomb disposal squad in Baghdad during the Iraq War. Bigelow became the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director, one of six Oscars for the film, including Best Picture. It was easily one of the best films of its year.

An on-fire Jeremy Renner scalds the screen in a star-making turn as Sergeant First Class William James, the independently-minded, maverick team leader who perversely enjoys the feeling-alive fun of putting himself and his pals in dire deadly risk on a day-to-day basis.

Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes and David Morse put in useful cameos, and Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty are superb as the other squad members, but it is Renner’s movie. A total thrill and scare ride, it feels so intense and real that you are reeling afterwards. Yet there is real sensitivity and intelligence behind it too. Filming in a starkly realist documentary style, Bigelow ensures that it will mess with your mind.

It won six Oscars at the Academy Awards in 2010, including Best Picture (Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier, Greg Shapiro), Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow), Best Original Screenplay (Mark Boal), Best Film Editing (Bob Murawski, Chris Innis), Best Sound Editing (Paul N J Ottosson), and Best Sound Mixing (Paul N J Ottosson, Ray Beckett). Renner as Best Actor, Marco Beltrami’s score and Barry Ackroyd’s cinematography were also nominated.

Ackroyd won a Bafta for Best Cinematography. It won a total of six Bafta awards, including Best Film, Screenplay, Director, Cinematography, Editing and Sound.

Bigelow was voted Director of the Year by the London Film Critics.

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© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Film Review 549 derekwinnert.com