http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/

Katherine Bigelow is an interesting director. She seems to have an understanding of how men act that not many female directors have. I hope that doesn't sound sexist, but its the same with male directors. Not many male directors can create a convincing female character who isn't an archetype in some way. While the Hurt Locker isn't as convincing in how it develops its characters as Jarhead, it is still very good in many ways. First is tension, this film has some of the most tension filled scenes I have watched in ages. There is a sniper scene out in a desert that is one of my favorite scenes of the year. The use of music is minimal and when it is used it is mostly in the background. Jeremy Renner is fantastic in this film, he is a sort of modern day iraq war version of Martin Riggs. He is reckless and takes many risks in his job as a bomb tech expert. The other actors are all good with Ralph Fiennes, and Guy Pearce making cameos for some reason. The way the film is structured is very loose, almost to a fault. It is much faster paced than Jarhead, yet it is still a character study. We watch as James risks his life to defuse bombs. He lives for the danger and the rush of his life. He almost seems like he is emotionally distant from the people around him. When his life is inches from being taken from his constantly I can understand why he seems distant to many. He dedicates himself to his job and while he tries his best to help those around him it is easy to see that he tries not to get too emotionally attached to his friends. The only kind of friendship he develops is with a small boy Beckham who sells DVDs on the army base. He even risks his own life to punish those he thinks may have harmed the boy. Even his apparent friendship with his comrades seems distant, especially with Sgt. Sanborn who he seems to have a love hate friendship with.

He collects bomb parts because he finds the idea of being close to something that almost killed him interesting, and listens to loud music in his spare time as if he wants to shut out the world around him. The loose narrative in this film works, but it doesn't get me as involved in the film as it could have.I understood James, but I didn't really feel like I was getting involved in the story. This could be the point though, for us to feel as emotionally detached to these people as James seems to be. Problem is that doesn't really work a well as it could have. Most of the characters other than James are pretty underdeveloped so when they are in danger the drama was not as emotionally involving as it could have been. These men risk their lives every day in their job and they can't predict what will happen, and this may explain the film's loose structure. There really isn't much of a story that could be told and still be kept mostly realistic. I don't know how accurate this film is, but as a war film it is one of the better ones I have seen in a while. I loved watching James develop as a character, but the part with the boy and what he does later on felt a bit forced. I understood the poitn of it but it almost felt thrown in just to show that James can feel emotional when it comes to people. It didn't have much of an impact on me, especially since his friendship with the boy seemed to brief to be that interesting. Still though I highly recommend this film if you want to see a terrific iraq war film.

Overall I give it an 8.5 out of 10.