Kathryn Bigelow hasn't had a very prolific career but at least she's had a strong one. For every ambitious, but not entirely sucessful movie she's directed (like K-19: The Widowmaker or Blue Steel) she's knocked out a corker )like Near Dark, Strange Days or Point Break). She can add another success to the last list with The Hurt Locker, which follows a bomb squad in their final few weeks of duty in Iraq.
A bit like Darabont's The Mist, Bigelow drops her regular style and adopts a more hand-held documentary style of film-making. The result is a raw, authentic, in-your face experience which puts the audience right in the centrew of the action. Structurally the movie comprises of a series of missions as the trio of Bomb Disposal experts deal with the wildly varying callouts, all of which are incredibly tense viewing experiences.
The movie chooses not to take a stance on the Iraq occupation, instead allowing the three central characters to come to terms with doing the most dangerous job, in a very dangerous war. All three characters reflect a different viewpoint; thery're all trying to factor in what could be their impending deaths with living a normal life.
This is great stuff, with its up-close-an-personal account of life on the Iraqi streets and non stop set-pieces. The ambush sequence at the midpoint is a stand-out.
If there's a weakness there isn't much of a plot to speak of. However, since this is more of a multiple character study and a cinematic recreation of a distant war, it works extremely well.
