Comments on: The Hurt Locker: A New Kind of Movie About Iraq

By: Harry Fenton

Harry Fenton — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:15:51 +0000

Come on. Every war movie is “anti-war”. Just because we think a war is just does not mean that we, as well, are anti-war. We would much rather have a world where people did not think that it was a good idea to blow up innocents and non-combatants. We all hate war and terror – and we recognize that it is no picnic for any of our brave soldiers to face the constant atrocities committed by those whose only goal is to destabilize Iraq and the world by cowardly killing innocents. But does that mean that we sit down and give up when faced with these fanatics? No.

Hurt Locker does not portray the US involvement as being wrong – it portrays war as terrible. War being just and terrible are not incompatible notions. Soldiers not wanting to be blown up are real emotions – who actually WANTS to fight a war – no one. Obligations are heavy, it doesn’t mean that they are incorrect.

By: gill 12

gill 12 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:27:36 +0000

—Skillful for sure -BUT —-way toooo GQ & routine.

ALSO -with all the actual footage available from the
scene -isn’t making a conventional Hollywood picture
like this one rather pointless?

‘Battle of Algiers’ remains the standard for this sort
of subject. —About 50 years old —yet STILL the standard.

HOLLYWOOD remains soldout and clueless from decades of
Boomer enabling and shameless franchise slumming.

By: paul hendrix

paul hendrix — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:41:30 +0000

We didn’t lose the Korean War. It was a tie in the sense that we got back what we started for, and the treaty has not yet been signed. Have you noticed when we have gas rationing, meatless Tue. and Bond Drives, with the draft, we win. Otherwise its just the army at a war.

By: Typos_R_Us

Typos_R_Us — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:23:05 +0000

Typically, it takes a generation or so before any movie about any war is made that is worth seeing. For WW2, “12 O’clock High” was the exception (1949) but that was because the real actors were the airplanes and they were getting long in the tooth. “A Walk in the Sun” (1945) is another good WW2 movie done while the people it portrayed were still alive. After that you go to SPR (1998), which was prolly the best, next to “Enemy at the Gates” (2001). There are a few good Korean War movies, “Bridge at Toko-Ri” (1954) was made during the war. Korea was the first war America ever lost, thanks to Truman, so it’s not a popular subject.
Nothing yet about Vietnam worth watching, maybe in another 20 years or so.
“We Were Soldiers” tries, but it didn’t give that air of claustrophobia that clung to Vietnam. Elephant grass is murder on LOS.
I think technology helps. Most civilians just don’t understand modern weapons. Those Machine Guns firing into the LCI’s would spit out 10 chunks of steel per second. Inside 150 meters or so, they would go thru a human body and kill the man behind him. Hollywood chamges the effects of modern weapons to suit their pre-conceptions. Course, I really don’t think Hollywood wants to show people what it looks like after a 30Lb schel charge goes off inside a concrete bunker. Or the inside of a M-48 after a RPG hits it.

By: Sad Marine

Sad Marine — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:41:37 +0000

Oh boy, another production by the America haters of hollywood

wonder why the liberals never give up losing money on the antiwar crap movies

By: Chris Jones

Chris Jones — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:53:32 +0000

You mean this movie isn’t out yet? I downloaded Hurt Locker off the net like 3+ months ago.

By: Bonnie_

Bonnie_ — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:20:35 +0000

I’m longing for the iconic Iraq war movie, too. Adrenaline junkies and callous murderers are not representative of our soldiers. Only in Hollywood could they think this was a “neutral” film.

By: SmartGrunt

SmartGrunt — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:11:34 +0000

Paul, let’s not forget recounting stories of our conquests – real and imagined. When I hang out with my friends, we don’t go to art galleries, the opera, or the symphony. Despite that, we are not a bunch of morons as is sometimes portrayed. I know people that can quote every line from every action movie around, name all of David Bowie’s Albums, and still talk about the intricacies of insurgency theory, finance, or Roman history.

By: Paul in MI

Paul in MI — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:22:17 +0000

“their preferred method for bonding — aggressive wrestling and boozing — also falls squarely in the been there, seen that category”

Drinking – check
Wrestling – check
If they’d also spent their time watching action movies from the 80′s it would have been just like my old platoon. Some cliches become cliches for a reason.

By: john from cinncinatti

john from cinncinatti — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:25:02 +0000

a ssgt would be like a career soldier, so why would he be counting the days he has in. most troops count the days they got left in country before they go home. where there any vietcong in this movie?