The Hurt Locker User Reviews

First off, the movie was not bad, in fact, it was average. I would give it a straight average rating. However, for other reasons (below), I severely disliked it, and am giving it 1 star, to make people pay attention to what I have to say. Let me preempt accusations that I am insenstitive to the accute tribulations of so many Veterans that have returned home "whole but scarred." Battle stress and psychological trauma are horrible problems that need more awareness and attention so that we may educate the public and help our Veterans in need. However, simply combining this subject with cinematic realism (which Hurt Locker has in spades) does not a good movie make. This movie is to EOD and US Forces in Iraq as Maverick was to Top Gun. In fact, worse. I can tell you this as a statement of fact because I am a Naval Aviator, and because I worked with EOD as an advisor in Iraq for a year. I was not insulated from what war really is and served in what will be remembered as the War's worst time (06-07). So this guy, James, the EOD cowboy, is worse than Maverick. He puts lives at risk by doing his own thing. He gets off on the danger. Simply suggesting that someone like him may exist out there (which is simply an impossibility, like Tom Cruise's maverick) absolutely trashes the professionalism and pride of the Army and EOD in particular. But further than that, the whole driving goal of the movie is to suggest that deep down, inside each Soldier, if they are there long enough, lurks the supreme desire to court death at the expense of all other desires. It's a given in this movie that the war is useless - the last scene outside the wire is kids throwing rocks at an M1114 ("Humvee"). But the "deathwish cowboy" is an inevitable, even exalted ideal for the Army in this movie...a Colonel seeks out James to praise him in front of his Soldiers...and in a quietly poignant scene (the drunken brawl mentioned in other reviews), Sanborn, the moral anchor of the EOD team, asks if he is good enough to "wear the suit," revealing that even level-headed, ethical Soldiers will become emotionally blunted war addicts given enough time. These then are the movie's messages; the War is a futile political effort that rips the soul out of every citizen Soldier going In Country. Certainly others have thought and said as much - many whose opinions come from newspaper reports and the psychic imprint of Vietnam on the American moral conscience - but the really insidious and wretched aspect of this movie is ********** undebiably tarnishes the US Soldier to make its statement.

09/19/2009, 1:23 am

Me and my wife walked out. No plot and terible acting.

09/12/2009, 10:24 am

Spectacular film! Easily the best film of the year so far.

09/11/2009, 1:41 pm

This movie was tight and very intense. Jeremy Renner is billed as the star but Anthony Mackie held is own, toe to toe with Renner. I found myself holding my breath with many of the defusing scenes; it was like a thrill ride. I disagree with those who didn't like the barracks punching scene; that was a very MALE BONDING thing as uncomfortable as it may have made some people, it brought the two men closer as odd as that may seem to some! If you like war movies, this is the one; can't recommend it enough!!!

09/03/2009, 1:13 am

one of the best movies I've seen. I think it's an important movie that should be more theatres over these overrated hollywood celebrity movies. I want my sons to see it and I can only find one theatre in the entire tampa bay area showing it???

09/01/2009, 2:45 pm

Absolutely one of the best movies I've seen! Only part I didnt like was the drunken fight scene in the barracks..They could have left that out!

08/25/2009, 10:47 am

Very realistic. I do, however, agree with other people that they could have done more to explain what a "hurt locker" is? Photography was excellent! My husband and I really felt what a bomb squad soldier feels. I didn't enjoy the drunk punching scenes back at the barracks. Advertisements should have mentioned that Ralph Finnes has only a cameo appearance.

08/23/2009, 4:30 pm

by far one of the best movies made,full of action and very eye opening..instant classic

08/16/2009, 9:07 pm

Full of great action, amazing performances, and some of the best scenes of tension I've ever seen. Cleary the summer's best action film.

08/15/2009, 6:56 pm