Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Hurt Locker (2008)

1/28/2022

The Hurt Locker (2008) - Bigelow's electric Iraq War thriller

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Breakthrough Actor of the Year: Jeremy Renner + Best Independent Movie of the Year + Best War Thriller of the Year

An explosive poster for Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker

We follow a small bomb disarmament team in their last 40 days prior to getting sent back home to the US from the Iraq War. Sergeant James is the bomb expert, who pressures himself and his comrades beyond the expected, and pays the price.

The Hurt Locker is written by Mark Boal (In the Valley of Elah (2007, story)) and directed by Californian master filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow (The Loveless (1981)) as her 8th feature.

The film is as suspenseful as the adrenaline fix that protagonist James is chasing, successfully coupling a 'war is hell' narrative with an enormously excitement-driven thriller. Jeremy Renner (28 Weeks Later (2007)) is a find in the very Tom Cruise-like protagonist role. He gets excellent backing from Anthony Mackie (Synchonic (2019)), Brian Geraghty, David Morse, Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes. The film's portrayal of the war's distance-creating conflict to the life at home burns fiercely, even if Sergeant James' explanation of himself to his son is a bit overly eloquent, (and the film's title remains unexplained.) The trials seem realistic and are awfully exciting.

Camera style-wise I could have wished for some more fluid conversations, but the anxiety is played up here with twitchy handheld work and lots of edits. This is but a minor aside to a truly excellent war picture.

Kathryn Bigelow: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Zero Dark Thirty (2012) - Bigelow makes the Bin Laden manhunt into suspenseful, debate-inspiring, intense contemporary cinema

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Watch a short but intense clip from the film here

Cost: 15 mil. $

Box office: 49.2 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.28 times its cost)

[The Hurt Locker premiered 4 September (Venice Film Festival) and runs 131 minutes. Boal was embedded with a US bomb squad in Iraq for 2 weeks in 2004, which informed his script. Renner was paid 65k $ for his performance. Bigelow unsuccessfully attempted to get permits to shoot in Iraq or Kuwait. Shooting took place from July - September 2007 in British Columbia, including in Vancouver, and in Jordan, including in Amman. The Jordan shoot, at times near the Iraq border, was a high-stress, rough shoot with average temperatures of reportedly 49 degrees Celsius, illnesses, accidents and dangerous security situations, resulting in reportedly 200 hours of shot footage. The film opened #27 to a 145k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #13 and in 535 theaters, grossing 17 mil. $ (34.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 7.7 mil. $ (15.7 %) and Australia with 5.2 mil. $ (10.6 %). It was nominated for 9 Oscars, winning 6: For Best Picture, Director (Bigelow became the first female to win the honor), Original Screenplay, Editing, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. It lost Best Actor (Renner) to Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, Cinematography (Barry Aykroyd (Captain Phillips (2013))) to Mauro Fiore for Avatar and Score (Marco Beltrami (Love and Monsters (2020)) and Buck Sanders (Highway 395 (2000))) to Michael Giacchino for Up. It also won 6/8 BAFTA nominations, an AFI award, was nominated for 2 Independent Spirit awards, 3 Golden Globes and won 2 National Board of Review awards, among countless other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. The film made in excess of 30 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Bigelow returned with The Miraculous Year (2011, TV movie) and theatrically with Zero Dark Thirty (2012). Renner returned in The Oaks (2008, TV-series)) and theatrically in Ingenious (2009). The Hurt Locker is certified fresh at 97 % with an 8.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Hurt Locker?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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1/28/2022

The Hurt Locker (2008) - Bigelow's electric Iraq War thriller

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