The Hurt Locker

MOST of the recent glut of movies set in or about the Middle East conflict(s) have been handwringing affairs. In The Valley Of Elah was thoughtful but obvious. Robert Redford’s Lions For Lambs was glib, smug and dumb. Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker doesn’t set out to lecture the audience, but to entertain – albeit in an uncomfortable fashion by placing you alongside a bomb disposal expert (Jeremy Renner) in Baghdad. The story, such as it is, is about whether he will survive his tour, mentally as well as physically. Any political view is implied, not stated, and Bigelow stays with the troops, trying to give a sense of what it’s like to serve in such a situation. It’s a subtle, honest, gripping, funny, troubling film. Most of us can only imagine the mixture of adrenaline and terror that war brings. This is the closest a movie can get to it.