Monday, March 15, 2010

The Hurt Locker




Academy Award Winner for "Best Picture", "Best Director", "Best Editing", "Best Sound Design", "Best Original Screenplay" and "Best Sound Mixing"

9 comments:

  1. Watched this film for the first time today with John & Dan today. Shooting on 16mm was an amazing choice it gave the film a documentary look that it needed to put you in the the line of fire with these actors. Camera work was very gorilla-style again throwing you further in to the reality of this movie. If you are in the mood for an adrenaline junky experience the "Hurt Locker" is a great choice.

    I give it FULL PRICE in the theaters
    (unfortunately its no longer out in theaters...SUCK)
    Go see it blu-ray or not you will really enjoy this action packed film.

    Buy the way....it won BEST PICTURE

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  2. I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I agree with Kyle in their choice to use 16mm. It looks like such a realistic portrayal of what's going on in war these days. I was lucky enough that the '2010 Oscar Nominees' marathon came to my local theatre. So I spent a whole day watching this film, An Education, A Serious Man, Up, and District 9. The Hurt Locker was by far my favorite of the day. Highly recommended to all who are slow, and have not seen it yet.

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  3. Well by that definition Devin then you are also one of the slow ones b/c we saw this movie in Orlando back in the summer...lol.

    I really enjoy the control of tension in this film. I definitely feel that Bigelow deserved the Oscar...

    And the 16mm handheld cinematography really did an excellent level or realism and "you-are-there" feeling to this movie.

    I also like the way they handled the ending... I enjoyed the cathartic return home and his adrenaline addiction outweighing his love for everything else in his life... I thought it was appropriate, risky and honest. I was worried we might get a "happy" ending and i don't think that would've felt right for me...

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  4. wow... how'd I screw that up so bad?

    I meant...

    "the 16mm handheld cinematography really did an excellent job of creating a level of realism and a you-are-there feeling to the movie"

    lol

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  5. This movie was fantastic. I agree with Kyle about the shooting style, absolutely perfect way to tell the story. War movies are interesting to me because sometimes they make war seem "cool" or maybe just really crazy, but they don't always impress upon the viewer the intense psychological impact that killing a man or seeing a man killed can have on a person. The Hurt Locker did a superb job of conveying what war is really like, and what it does to a persons mind, heart, and spirit. Very moving.
    That being said, there were parts of the movie that didn't quite jive with my turkey, if you know what I mean. Some of the high-speed shots seemed kind of forced to me. Thats not to say that they didn't fit at all (you can find metaphorical/symbolic meaning to justify just about anything in a movie), but to me they felt like just something cool to add in to the mix. And oddly enough I wasn't crazy about the ending. More specifically the very last shot/moment. The idea that the main character needed to go back to war because that was the only place he felt he belonged/knew how to function makes perfect sense, and is probably very true to life. What didn't sit well with me was the execution of that last scene, where he's walking back into battle and the rock and roll music is blaring. It just seemed weird to me. The whole movie felt like an observation of war, but that scene felt like the movie was trying to glorify how awesome this it is. I don't know if that makes sense. I honestly think I just didn't agree with the music choice. It also felt weird to me because I didn't see that character as the MAIN character or total focal point of the movie, but he's the only one that has any real conclusion with his character. Either that or the fact that I don't jive with that scene is proof that maybe I really didn't even understand the filmmakers vision in the first place. Either way, its a great movie, and certainly deserved all the accolades this oscar season.

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  6. Chad said it perfectly saying this was a "observation of war." Its an intense look into the psyche of the human race, and how war can change you at a deep and core level.

    The characters are a perfect representation of the issues we are having with kids coming out of Iraq. I loved all three of them; Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) being the all out solider, intesnely straight forward in the way he wants things done. Protocol, protocol, protocol. James (Jeremy Renner) the adreniline junky bomb tech. My favorite of the three was Eldridge (Brian Geraghty), the scared, unsure young solider, looking to his teammates to find his way. He's a mirror of both Sanborn and James, following one and then the other.

    I agree to a certain degree with you Chad, about the slow motion. It did seem a little out of place...but they were quick. There were only two or three scenes with them. I felt that kept it out of the realm of being way to much, or way to out of place. Kathryn Bigelow said in a interview I saw that she wanted to put you in the shoes of what is arguably the most dangerous job in the world. The slow motion final seconds of a bomb going off seems like an eternity...time slows down and everything happens faster then you would expect. It hit the right note with me. Again, there wasn't too much of it, so it didn't feel to forced.

    The ending scene...I dunno. I liked it. The music, the walk. It all fit the character. It felt like that last moment to roll the character arc back around to the beginning. I actually liked the whole scene...worked for me. And I loved the "365 days remaining" across the screen...really tied everything together. I can see where some wouldn't like the music, or didn't find it necessary...it rides that line pretty close, even in my mind.

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  7. i felt that the rock music "awesomeness" of the ending was Bigelow's last shot at us... the audience...

    When the music kicked in and he was walking all cool and in slo-mo like a action movie.... I felt like it was "awesome" that he was going back into it... which is probably the EXACT thing that James was feeling at that moment... we know it's bad, but we still had an exhilarated feeling...

    she took our disagreement and sadness at his realization in his son's room (which is how he felt at the time) and then hit us with an adrenaline rush of "awesomeness" as he walked back into the shit...

    i thought it was another example of the "putting us in their shoes" thing...

    but like you said... maybe I'm just symbolically justifying something that isn't there... but that's how I felt when I watched it... like "This is awesome, but I feel guilty that I'm excited he's going back into his addiction and'll probably end up dead..."

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  8. John I don't think youre symbolically justifying something that isn't there, I think you and Dan are both right on about the scene. The scene really is a perfect wrap for that character. Going back in almost exactly how he showed up in the first place, unable/unwilling to walk away from the danger/addiction. And in that sense the rock the music does make perfect sense, especially considering thats exactly how we were introduced to the character, so yeah I totally get that.

    I think the reason I missed it when I first watched it is because I was expecting a specific kind of ending. We had just watched a movie that was about 3 guys (at least in my head thats what I thought), and so I think i was subconsciously expecting an ending that would have an equal wrap up for each guy. Not to say that didn't happen to some degree, but obviously James gets a much more involved wrap up, and looking back, its makes sense, we as an audience did spend more intimate time with his character, just for some reason when I saw it, I wasn't expecting the ending to be all about him. Like I said, in hindsight, it really does make sense, and focusing on his perspective as the ending really is great way to crystalize the life of a soldier.

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  9. yeah... i think Eldridge got the "weakest" wrap-up (even though he did seem to decide that he didn't want to be like James which serves his arc)... that scene where they drive back to base after the guy with the bomb-vest blew up really gave Sanborn a good final scene... it was really emotional and I thought it was ironic that he basically was saying he wanted what James essentially has... a home w/ a wife and son... interesting dichotomy...

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