Movie Review - The Hurt Locker - Essay Example

Number] Movie Review - The Hurt Locker The Hurt Locker movie was released on September 4, 2008in Venice and June 26, 2009 in United States. It is based on situation in post-war era of Iraq. This movie has been directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who has a distinct visual style to push cinematic boundaries both in terms of films as well as the representation of gender. The movie presents the conflict to the viewers from the soldiers’ point of view, which faced the blunt of war in Middle East. It gives an idea about the dangers which are faced by the soldiers operating in Iraq even after the war, while making their efforts to restore peace and make Iraq a safer place for Iraqis as well as Americans. During the clearance operations from street to street, the soldiers are prone to man threats like sniper shooting, being victim of road side bombings, the suicide blasts or even the detonations of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices); but the mission i.e. restoration and maintenance of peace is of utmost importance for those soldiers, which has to be achieved even at the cost of their lives. About the Director Kathryn Ann Bigelow is an American film director, producer; TV plays director as well as screenwriter. Her famous movies and screenplays include Near Dark (1987), Point Break (1991), Strange Days (1995) and the Hurt Locker (2008). Bigelow is famous in print and electronic media community for inconceivable visuals and heart-pounding action sequels. Her unique concepts depicted in movies make her different and stand out from many other directors of Hollywood. Being one of today’s most enthralling directors, she started her film career with a short movie The Set Up in 1978 in which she focused on violence in the society. In 1989, she made her first studio project public, Blue Steel. Though the movie received criticism for weak plot and violence by some of the critics but at the same time, it gathered a lot of praise for its imagery and real time screen effects (Deborah and Sean 65). Bigelow tried TV screen as well in 1993 and directed a number of television crime dramas / serials like Homicide; Life on the Streets and The Weight of Water. Her later project was The Hurt Locker which won numerous awards including BAFTA Award for best director and best film. After having a complete success in Hurt Locker, Bigelow directed her next movie Triple Frontier which was a joint venture of Bigelow and Mark Boal (The same embedded journalist who joined Bigelow in Hurt Locker). Story The story was originated by Mark Boal, who was a freelance journalist, paid by American Govt to cover / accompany an American Bomb Squad operating in Iraq after the war had ended. Boal accompanied the soldiers and covered mines and Improvised Explosive Devices clearance operations in Iraq. He had a close and keen observation on day to day risk for the soldiers and level of their motivation for restoration of peace. He maintained a sequential log of events of whatever he observed about the soldiers and later shared his experiences with Bigelow. She was fascinated by his exploration of the psychology of soldiers who volunteered for this conflict despite knowing the threat to their lives. The Hurt Locker is especially concerned with the hazards of war zone even if the war has ended and commitment of soldiers to their job. The script was originally named as The Something Jacket but later on given the name of Hurt Locker to attract audience for the movie. Filming The movie was shot in Jordan, which is located very close to Iraq and has same demography as Baghdad. Amman was selected in order to depict the areas of Baghdad and other parts of Iraq. Moreover Iraqi and other Middle East refugees, who were accommodated in Jordan during Iraq war, were casted in the movie to create a real-time battle field environment. The movie director, Kathryn Bigelow selected some suitable places in Morocco as well but those places were ultimately rejected as they didn’t resemble Iraq and extra efforts were needed to create war zone scenarios. Moreover she wanted to remain closer to actual battle field as much as possible. Despite the security concerns shown by the movie producer, Greg Shaprio, the shooting started in Kuwait and Jordon in Jul 2007, which lasted for 44 days. Most of the times four or more cameramen shot the scenes simultaneously which resulted in approximately 200 hours of footage. The shooting was carried out in a very realistic way by compelling the actors to undergo actual situation in Iraq like they were not provided with air conditioners, no private bathrooms etc. Besides many other factors these were a great contribution to authenticity of the film as they created a war scenario for the spectators. Cinematography Bigelow was impressed with the work experience and audience response to cinematography of Barry Ackroyd, who had worked on United 93 and The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Four Super 16 mm cameras were used to capture the scenes from multiple perspectives and angles. These cameras had special advantage for usage in hand-held operations and having great resolution even with high degree of zoom (Steven 268). Barry had a background experience of making documentaries which gave him an advantage for this movie. While staging the film, director remained sequential to film actions by using multiple cameras to allow her to look at several set pieces from all possible outlooks (Boal 29). Editing Editing of the movie was done by Chris Innis and Bob Murawski. Editing 200 hours footage to 130 minutes, that too with a non-traditional and un-patterned screenplay by Boal was really a challenge for the editors. There was no specific villain character; the strain was derived from suspense, the sound effects of blasts, sniper actions or the in-house divergences among the movie characters. The editors spent initial eight weeks on shooting sites to carry out the editing before their return to Los Angeles. The objective of editing was to portray a realistic war zone scenario with very less number of unusual effects or technological enrichment. It took almost eight months for the editors to achieve their goals. The editors wanted the film to retain its status as a real documentary. The editors faced a lot of problems in editing the film in Jordan as it was a great risk to send the undeveloped film through airports with high intensity scanners, making the film susceptible to damage. Ultimately it was hand carried by a production assistant in flight to London for transferring it on DVcam. The process took a lot of time and resulted in unusual delay in finalization of the editing. Response by war veterans The movie was not well received and appreciated by some of the war veterans and generalists declaring the war scenes in movie to be un-realistic and exaggerated. According to them, the war-time situations were not portrayed correctly. Besides this, there were other numbers of errors highlighted by the veterans like improper military uniform worn by the soldiers, non-availability of service radio sets for voice communication or even the misconduct of few soldiers shown during the movie. All these factors tarnished the expectations from the movie and the director; thereby reducing the uniformed spectators. An important technical and tactical mistake highlighted by many “Explosive Ordinance Destruction” experts was that in war time environments or even the normal life, EOD operations are not conducted in small groups of 2-3 individuals as it happened in this movie. It is always carried out as a group effort; different actions performed by different individuals in conformity to each other. Brandon Friedman, a famous writer and veteran who embedded a number of operations, confirmed that though the movie will be liked by many spectators, yet the people who have either served in military or have some knowledge about the military culture and its operations will surely be disappointed by its deviations from the reality (Teays‎ 24). Honours and Awards The film was much liked by the spectators around the world. Its budget was $ 15 Million. It had a business of over $ 145, 000 on first week of screening and $ 131, 000 in second week. The total box office turnover was $ 49, 230, 772. It was the first film in America to have done such a large business in initial two weeks. Hurt Locker achieved various awards and nominations which included best screenplay, best editing as well as casts’ performance. The Movie won the Best Picture Academy Award for 2009 and was also nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Drama-2010. In 67th Golden Globe Awards, it received three nominations for best motion picture, best director and best screenplay but unfortunately, could not win any award. In 82nd Academy Awards, it received nine nominations and managed to get six awards including best director, original screenplay and the best motion picture. Having achieved this award Bigelow became the first woman to receive best director award and fourth woman in the world to be nominated in the history of awards (Seidler et al.11). Besides a number of awards, Hurt Locker earned enormous awards and honours from critics’ organizations and groups including six BAFTA Awards (Thorpe and Thorpe 108). Conclusion Although there had been a number of movies in past which were dramatized on Iraq conflict but all of them failed to attract audience having a controversy among people of different communities. Hurt Locker was a unique script of its kind as it didn’t support or stand against the American and coalition force’s actions in Iraq. It is truly based on life of a soldier, who is much motivated to go in war zone, having greater skills in his trade i.e. Explosive Ordinance Destruction. The soldier declares war as drug for his survival. The suspense created in movie and sympathies of audience for the soldiers who are risking their lives for the restoration of peace became the deciding factor in attracting a large volume of spectators across the world in general and America in particular. There was no element of controversy as the film was neither political nor the combat film, and merely showed the high amounts of violence. Even the American community that had a feeling of guilt about Iraq war has been able to enjoy the film. The movie had a lesson and information for all those audience as well as for those who thought that the soldiers’ lives are quite easy to live. In totality, it can be said that it was a post war movie highlighting the problems which can be faced by security forces even after the war has met an end. Work Cited Boal, Mark. The Hurt Locker: The Shooting Script. New York: Newmarket Press, 2009. Print.‎ Deborah, Jermyn and Sean Redmond. The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow: Hollywood ‎Transgressor. London: Wallflower Press, 2003. Print.‎ Sabine, Carey C, Mark Gibney, and Steven C. Poe. The Politics of Human Rights: The ‎Quest for Dignity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print.‎ Steven, Rubin, J. Combat Films: American Realism, 1945-2010. Jefferson, N.C: ‎McFarland, 2011. Print.‎ Teays, Wanda. Seeing the Light: Exploring Ethics through Movies. Malden, MA: Wiley-‎Blackwell, 2012. Print.‎ Thorpe Edgar and Thorpe, Showick, The Pearson Concise General Knowledge Manual: ‎‎2009. Delhi: Pearson Education, 2009. Print.‎ Read More