The Hurt Locker

Here is a plotline: Husband and wife are film directors and they both get nominated for Academy Awards. Husband's film has already grossed up big bucks and big awards. The bets are on. No woman has become the President of US and no woman director has ever won the Oscar for direction. When the husband is James Cameron who has made movies like Titanic and the runaway success called Avatar it is crazy to even give her a chance.  She tends to make these action movies. A woman making a war flick in Hollywood may get appreciation but not the big award. The big night is here and the Oscar for the best director goes to ...   Katherine Bigelow. In what can be a great plot for a movie by itself, Katherine creates history by being the first woman to get that honor. That gives us hope. Maybe one day a woman will yet become the President of US.  How did The Hurt Locker story happen?In 2004, journalist Mark Boal (who co-produced the film and wrote the screenplay) spent several weeks embedded with a US Army bomb squad in Baghdad, following its movements and getting inside the heads of the men whose skills rival those of surgeons — except in their case one false move means they lose their own lives rather than the life of a patient. Mark’s first-hand observations of their days and nights disarming bombs became the inspiration for The Hurt Locker. The story is brutally realistic. It engages and promises no mercy when you feel your nerves getting shredded in the heat of battle. You experience the tension and the relief each time the protagonists manage to defuse the bomb and the tension in your mind simultaneously. The film shows the gruesome impact of war on the minds of people. Jeremy Renner as Staff Sergeant William James, whose job it is to discover the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and  cut the wires does a realistic portrayal of what it takes to do that role. Made me wonder, how do they select people like that in real life? How do you choose people who really like doing such stuff and living on the edge. It makes bungee jumping look tame.So what is a Hurt Locker. It is a little box of parts of the IEDs that the protagonist collects that could have potentially hurt him. It also includes his wedding ring. That was a bit over the top and perhaps the only moment when Kathy Big almost fumbled on the narrative. Yet she comes back quickly to take charge.It is difficult to make a war film without taking sides. Wasn't the war in Iraq initiated by US? The answer to that question depends on which side of the socio-political spectrum you look at the issue. Katherine B does not delve into that question at all. Instead uses a docu-drama feel to the narration to and focus on the psychology of these soldiers. A peep into the dark side of humans without use of Hollywood cliches and bravado. It is a rush of adrenaline that is matched only by a drug. "The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug." - Chris Hedges.As Katherine said recently in an interview, she wants to be remembered as a great director and not as a "woman director". I agree.-------------------Check out the movies website.