Review:
A US Army bomb squad in Iraq loses its leader and his replacement turns out to be less concerned with rules and safety and more with the adrenalin rush of disarming bombs. The film follows their and especially his story in 2004 Iraq in a combination of action thriller and character study. Both parts are not perfect, but the combination is intriguing, with many suspenseful scenes as well as some interesting insights into the human psyche. Sadly, the film is less of a coherent story and more of a series of anecdotes, thus preventing any real connection with the protagonists and their situation.
Random Observations:
Seventh of the ten Best Picture Oscar nominees I have seen and so far the only one who even remotely deserves that award.
The film has been criticized much both for its lack in realism (apparently, there are numerous mistakes in clothing, equipment and bomb disarming technique) and for it’s stand on the Iraq War (or as I like to call it: Vietnam II). Both criticisms completely miss the point: the depiction of war as hell (at least for most soldiers) is realistic even if they have the wrong guns and the film does not take a stand on the justification of the war at all.
Tags: 2008, action movie, American Film, Anthony Mackie, Barrie Rice, Brian Geraghty, Christian Camargo, Christopher Sayegh, David Morse, Drama, english, Evangeline Lilly, Feisal Sadoun, Guy Pearce, Jeremy Renner, Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Nabil Koni, Oscar, Ralph Fiennes, Sam Redford, Sam Spruell, Suhail Al-Dabbach, The Hurt Locker, Thriller, war movie