The Hurt Locker (2008)

Kathryn Bigelow certainly deserved her Oscars for The Hurt Locker, a taut and nuanced tale of the adrenaline addiction of war as seen and felt through the eyes and ears of a U.S. Army bomb-defusing squad in Bagdad and esp. its leader (Jeremy Renner), who has defused 873 bombs (and counting). A bit of a cowboy, he savors the thrill and the challenge of his work, even stripping off his armored suit to defuse one particularly devious car bomb ("If I die, I want to die comfortable") and keeping a souvenir box under his bunk of "things that almost killed me." The soundtrack is exotic, lush, and reminiscent of Lawrence of Arabia -- but this is not your father's Lawrence of Arabia. Bagdad is a pummeled and pockmarked urban wasteland filled with oases of citizens and families trying to go about their daily lives -- yet also peppered with insurgents in citizen's clothing who lurk or loiter, ready to detonate a roadside bomb on a moment's notice (or to film the aftermath and post American soldiers' deaths to YouTube). The U.S. patrols' nascent, jacked-up paranoia often leads to tense, no-nonsense standoffs ("Well, if he wasn't an insurgent, he is now") and the billowing blooms of concussive detonations, poetically described by Guy Pearce, who with Anthony Mackie, David Morse, and Ralph Fiennes, fill out the antidemolitions team. The Hurt Locker is Full Metal Jacket meets Blackhawk Down as soldiers struggle to cope with the loss of their brothers in war and Renner's character tries to backtrack the 411 on a young Iraqi boy. You can almost feel the heat and taste the grit in your teeth. If you can stand the military's four-letter language and the tension of insurgent warfare, be sure to see this Oscar winner for Best Picture. 5 stars.