***Warning: Spoilers Ahead! If you don't want to know, read no further!
As everyone knows, the Academy Awards are coming up on Sunday. One of the most talked about contenders for awards this year, the Iraq war story "The Hurt Locker" has come under alot of fire (no pun intended) from veterans of the OIF conflict, myself included. Hollywood has made incredible amounts of money by glorifying war through movies. "The Hurt Locker" is no exception.
The movie follows an EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) team through their tour in Iraq. The team is assigned a new team leader, who is much a cowboy as he is a soldier. He constantly defies orders, doing whatever he wants. He is reckless with the lives of his team. The only part that I found even slightly authentic in the combat sequences was when the team leader shed his gear, saying that " If I'm going to die, I'm gonna die comfortable." I can remember thinking like that myself a few times during my two tours.
One thing that is absolutely inaccurate is the way that this team of soldiers seems to just drive around by themselves in their vehicle, outside the wire, like a police car patrolling the streets. Any soldier will tell you that this is not the way it is, in fact it's not even close. There is very little command structure (not like this cowboy would listen anyway), and there is very little (if any) support. it seems as if they just find a bomb and go get it, like loading up the family van to go out to dinner.
My favorite part of the movie (and I am definitely being sarcastic) is when the EOD team leader takes things personal, throws on a hoodie, and runs out into Iraq with a pistol, looking for revenge. This is the most idiotic thing I have ever seen in a war movie. In a way, it's kind of insulting to think that none of us veterans would pick up on this ridiculous scene, or that we wouldn't cry foul. It makes it seem possible to just leave your camp and go grab a Coke, or go grab a bad guy, or whatever. And when he goes back to his camp, he is just searched and let in....I could go on and on about how blatantly stupid this is, but I won't.
To be fair, the movie did have some good parts. At the end of the movie, the idiot team leader finds himself back home, with his family at a grocery store. There is this terrific moment (not being sarcastic) where he seems overwhelmed by choosing cereal. He seems unsure what to do, he just doesn't know how to pick cereal anymore. Afterwards, the scene fades to him back in Iraq, walking off the plane for another tour, it has become all that he understands. I can relate to this, as I'm sure that most veterans can. It is really difficult to adjust to life after war. Most, if not all of us, can't wait to get home when we're over there. The irony is, once we get home all we want to do is go back. It is beyond difficult to describe how hard it is to leave war behind and move on with life. For all of its' exaggerated, insulting, and glorified storytelling, "The Hurt Locker" makes this point extremely well.
I recently found out that this movie was written by a name I know well, Mark Boal. Mr. Boal is the author of a 2004 Playboy article, "Death and Dishonor ", which is based on my old unit. The article was written about the murder of SPC Richard Davis when my unit returned home from the invasion in 2003. The article places blame, quite unfairly, on our units' First Sergeant, and was told to Mr. Boal by soldiers from our company who were either drunk, or desperate for attention. This article later became the basis for the movie "In The Valley Of Elah" which did a somewhat decent job of telling the story, after being changed around to avoid lawsuits (didn't anyone think it was odd that the chicken shack lady and the gun store lady had thick Southern accents in New Mexico?). Once I found out that he was the writer in this movie, it all made sense. this gentleman loves to take stories and twist them to make them more dramatic, as if combat isn't dramatic enough.
I do not, however, blame the actors. There was some pretty decent acting in this movie, however ridiculous the movie might have been. Jeremy Renner, who portrays the idiot team leader, does a fairly good job. His acting is the only thing I would hope that the Academy sees as oscar worthy from this film. In my opinion, I would tell Jeremy Renner to keep acting, and tell Mark Boal to stop writing. I'm not saying that every war movie has to be completely accurate, but "The Hurt Locker" goes way too far.
---J.R.
*** Update: The Hurt Locker won three major Oscars
Best Picture - Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro
Best Director - Kathryn Bigelow
Best Original Screenplay - Mark Boal
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