I just saw the movie today. I’ll probably calm down and re-assess later, but right now I think it was awesome. The writing and acting were brilliant, Kathryn Bigelow did a kick ass job directing, the story was compelling if a little too long. The whole theater gasped in the “six bombs” scene.
As far as it being unrealistic, it’s fiction. Sure Sanborne would have gotten James removed after the car incedent, but so what? it’s not a documentary, it’s a character study of three men; The adrenaline junky who has a sick love for the job, the professional who just wants to survive, and the kid who really shouldn’t be there.
I agree with mswas about ministry. It was perfect. James is a badass doing a needed job, but he’s also a desperate neurotic with a suicidal obsession. Ministry captures both of these aspects really well.
Also I think both characters had been in elite units before becoming EOD. It’s not inconceivable that they would have been trained on the sniper rifle.
My problem wasn’t so much that they were trained on the sniper rifle. That didn’t bother me at all. What DID bother me was how much time they sat in their exposed position cleaning blood off of bullets and such when the enemy tagged Ralph Fiennes in like a minute and a half. I was also bothered by how Ralph Fiennes team wasn’t totally killed, but at some point they just disappeared. It was up to the kid to kill that guy on the train tracks, as though the other guy who had previously been right next to him just vanished. That’s what bothered me about that scene. If they wanted to portray them being stuck all by themselves out there they should’ve killed Fiennes entire team.
I’m not so sure. I think that we, like Sanborn, are supposed to feel a bit of loathing towards him at first, but to eventually gain respect for him. Yeah, he’s a loose cannon, but he has balls of titanium, and he gets the job done in a way that no one else can.
I figured the mercs were covering their own areas. The bridge guy just showed up in Eldrige’s area, so he was the one to take him out. Also, Eldrige may have only had radio contact with James and Sanborne. And Eldrige was pretty freaked out and not acting completely rationally. I do agree that the mercs were strangely silent and useless during the sniper duel. They had just lost three out of five of their team. Maybe the two remaining just weren’t that good.
Late to the engagement, but boy, is this just a lukewarm movie. It’s not something I’ll intentionally watch again and hell, I even sat through Titanic a second time.
For anyone who hasn’t yet seen it, and is excited by the awards it won, don’t bother watching. Just get a frat boy movie and couple it up with a US sports movie - it’s about the same.
How crap is it exactly? Well, it’s not spectacularly crap, it just maintains a constant low level of background crapyness. Dialogue is there, despite the need for it. In fact, it might have been a better movie if none of the characters said anything at all.
I cared nothing for any of the main characters, unless hoping one of them gets blown up counts as caring.
Academy Award for Best Achievement in Directing: Kathryn Bigelow
Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen: Mark Boal
Academy Award for Best Achievement in Editing: Bob Murawski, Chris Innis
Academy Award for Best Achievement in Sound: Paul N.J. Ottosson, Ray Beckett
Academy Award for Best Achievement in Sound Editing: Paul N.J. Ottosson
Nominated for Academy Awards:
Best Achievement in Cinematography: Barry Ackroyd
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score: Marco Beltrami, Buck Sanders
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Jeremy Renner
It continues with critic groups giving it award after award after award, and most of them are listed on this Wikipedia page.
This reminds me that my prognosticating skills were pretty good! I said, on August 2, 2009:
[QUOTE=Me]
For those who follow awards, I have little doubt in my mind that The Hurt Locker is going to be a name you’ll hear often come Awards season. Multiple Oscar nominations are a lock, I would bet on it. I would not be surprised at all if it were nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow), Best Actor (Jeremy Renner), Best Supporting Actor (though I’m not sure how they could choose between Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty), Best Screenplay (Mark Boal), and Best Editing (Chris Innis and Bob Murawski). At the very least. Not knowing what the competition will be, it’s hard to pin it to any wins, but if ever there were an opportunity to (finally) award a woman Best Director, this is it.
[/QUOTE]
As this is a trifle elderly and the thread title decidedly zombie-like, I’m going to close this thread. If anyone would like to open a new discussion of the movie, feel free.