definition: noun. a period of immense, inescapable physical or emotional pain.
The Hurt Locker was just badass. All around. The acting, the cinematography, the direction, and the message, all the components were traumatizing to say the least. There was so much tension in this movie; I can't even describe the feeling of suspense and unrest I felt while watching for the first time. On top of the fact that the action and drama kept me on edge, even the tension of the emotions characters go through makes you reach into your chest and grab your heart out of feeling suffocation. A scene with actor Anthony Mackie, playing Sergeant Sandborn, confronts his own doubts and confusion about why he is doing what he is doing and the helplessness of knowing what he does may one day kill him, is incredibly truthful and moving. The levels and the roller coaster almost never settle. In moments of sheer calm, I sat there wondering what was going to happen at any moment that would make me jump or want to vomit out of anticipation. Truly, on the big screen, the mind wants to escape what its viewing because this film hits your senses at very close proximity.
The story revolves around Staff Sergeant William James, played effortlessly by Jeremy Renner, a newcomer to the mainstream and the "attention" of the masses as well as the powers that be. Before this gig, he caught the eye of many big wigs in Hollywood with his performance as Jeffrey Dahmer in the film of the same surname. The amazing thing about Renner is, just as the movie was released, he was shooting a reality show called "The It Factor," and on the show, he sky rockets from struggling actor to reading tons of scripts on camera with buddies, trying to sift through them, eventually finding his way to S.W.A.T. and other films. We need an actor in this world like Renner. He's not overtly good looking, no Robert Redford or Brad Pitt. To quote Kissing Jessica Stein, he could be deemed "sexy ugly," or just your average joe, in a macho sense. He's not your typical leading man either, but he has a strong presence, a quick wit, and he has a focus in his stare. You can read everything he is thinking in those beady eyes. Go watch 28 Weeks Later (GREAT film) and watch his facial gestures and mannerisms. In Hurt Locker he continues being precise, being smart with his choices, taking the simpler route, which is always more interesting because it's more instinctual, more real. He observes, he looks like he's thinking things through ten steps ahead of where he is at the present moment, which makes him a thousand times more interesting to watch than other actors who rely on quirky dialogue and good looks and bullshit charm.
Anthony Mackie, a little more known although not by much, shines as the straight arrow do-gooder contrast to Renner's renegade rogue. The situations and their realism create a tense environment for these two characters. They are members of an elite team of bomb diffusers, known as an EOD, an Explosive Ordinance Disposal crew. They receive intel on where bombs are hidden in areas of the Middle East, and go in to diffuse them, either by robot machine, or by their own hands in a massive padded disposal suit. It's completely insane, and the perfect cocktail for suspense. This entire operation was kept under government raps until recently, and director Kathryn Bigelow decided she needed to be the first to take this sort of war story and present it to the public. I'm glad she did, because her eye for detail and human condition is the closest thing to feeling like you're in war that we're going to get. Mackie's performance is so bare bones, so simple in the belief that he's doing this for a greater good, that Renner almost seems to mock him, because Renner's character apparently does it out of joy and the thrill of possible death, which is totally fucked, and severely dangerous, if he weren't the best of the best. As a colonel puts it (played by one of three special cameos), after finding out Sgt. James has diffused over 800 bombs, he respectfully concludes that "that's just...hot shit, isn't it?"
The most outstanding achievement I feel in this film is the capture of the characters in their scene. Bigelow has this slow motion camera work happening that captures the tiniest moving elements when a bomb explodes. The shifting of rust and gravel on a car 8 times as slow, for example, to give the audience a sense of how the guys right next to the bomb feel. Unfortunately for these men, sometimes the bomb does indeed go off, and even if they manage to get farther away in time, it ain't like the movies. This film shows the reality of the power and surge generated by an explosion, and how powerful it can be even from many yards away, and how slow the feeling of being blasted backwards actually an feel, what happens to all the surrounding when a bomb goes off. She actually captures this force on camera, and the emotions and reactions of the men who deal with it to boot. Renner's James doesn't have a death wish so much as he just isn't afraid of what he does, because he actually loves what he does. It's the only thing he truly loves. Mackie's Sanborn does it out of talent and necessity, but it isn't his life. This struggle throughout the film, as they enter dangerous situations from two different perspectives, brings these characters to a head, but Bigelow has shown truly through Renner that war is in fact a drug. Renner's character of love prevails over Mackie's character of necessity, because love trumps all, even if it's love of diffusing bombs by hand. Bigelow frequently uses handheld close-ups on characters faces, and her shots are usually long and uncut. The simplicity of this, I think, is the strongest tool for a director to really get the truth out of characters, because they can't hid behind edits. Mix this theory with some of the best young actors in the business and you have a film that captures the truest of human emotion.
The Hurt Locker didn't do well in theatres until hype got so big, people eventually went to check it out, but by then it was too late to make moves financially. It didn't last too long in theatres, wasn't widely released or marketed. The trailer didn't do much for the excitement factor of the film, and since Renner and Mackie were mostly unknown to the masses, it missed a lot of audience. But this never stopped a film from being recognized as a true masterpiece after the fact during awards season. There Will Be Blood has DDL attached to it as a major draw and still wasn't a huge box office success, but come Oscar time, and well, you know the drill. Hopefully this will be the same tale with Hurt Locker, because it truly is one of the best shot films and best acted I've seen in recent release for a long long time. I would like to think that of all the categories, Renner as lead actor, Bigelow as Director, and cinematography would get sure nomination, with Mackie and editing as next best guess. See the Hurt Locker. ASAP.
No comments:
Post a Comment