The Hurt Locker

Saw it, liked it.

There's some controversy as to how accurate it is in portraying things "over there", but I have to say this: it's a freaking movie, of course it won't be 100% accurate.

Of the three things mentioned, only one caused me to have a "JAG reaction". That's where somebody does something in the movie that is so totally outside their skill set, it reminds me of Harmon Rabb jumping into an F/A 18 every time he had to go somewhere. JAG reaction is another name for bullshit alarm, I guess.

My opinions of these after the jump - Spoilers ahead!

The three main gripes are:

1) The star takes off his bomb suit before disarming a bomb, saying "If I die, at least I'll be comfortable" or something. I had no problem with that. They were establishing his "cowboy" image, etc. Besides, that suit offers no protection up close. That was established early on.

Would it happen in real life? Hell no, he'd be on the first thing smoking back to the rear, en route to the loony bin. But it was entertaining.

2) The star goes outside the wire wearing civilian clothes. I had no problem with this, either, but I've never been to Iraq. As it was, my time in the sandbox was in and around Riyadh and Dhahran, and I walked around those cities plenty of times. I had no frame of reference for that scene.

3) This one got me - they go to investigate a bombing, and the star goes hunting for the bomber down side alleys. What's more, his two teammates go hunting, too. Each down their own separate side alley. Didn't tell anybody, just took off.

That was complete bullshit. If I have to explain why, I don't want to know you.

As far as authenticity goes, they used the wrong uniforms for the period, no biggie. They also had the EOD guys manually disarming bombs a lot more than in real life. Again, no biggie. The movie would have been boring as hell if they blew every bomb in place (they usually do).

What I did like - there was no real political agenda, it was just a war story. The characters were realistic, as was the setting. There was none of the "which wire do I cut?" nonsense that takes place whenever Hollywood and bombs intersect. A Barrett .50 makes a cameo appearance, however cell phones, video cameras and a nine volt battery create tension, to great effect.

This is a hell of a movie, I'm glad I bought it.