Film Analysis: The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker showcases the experiences of a United States Army bomb squad stationed in Iraq after US invasion of foreign soil. On the surface, the film is ostensibly a story based on the actual experiences of a journalist embedded with US military forces in Iraq. If audiences choose to dig deeper, there are multiple meanings that can be drawn from the storyline. Its most noticeable theme is established immediately with the film’s opening quotation, “The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug.” Despite the fact that war is harsh and unpredictable, those involved become habituated to these realities, and often don't know how to live without them. Basic editing techniques are used to build a centralized …show more content…
Thompson is soon replaced by Sgt. James, a reckless adrenaline junkie and seemingly careless addition to the Explosive Ordinance Unit in Iraq. His character does an outstanding job of displaying the fact that although warfare frequents in chaos and unpredictability, soldiers become wired for the daily ritual of potential fatality. As for Sgt. James, some even become so engulfed in this routine that they live to stare death in the face. They become addicted to battle and the uncertainty of war, sometimes even placing themselves in easily avoidable and risky situations in order to challenge their fate. There are many examples of this in The Hurt Locker, but there is one sequence in particular that builds on this thematic foundation with its use of crosscutting. Sgt. James and his team are called upon to disable a bomb that has been placed in an abandoned car parked outside of the United Nations building. As James approaches the car in his protective bomb suit, crosscutting shows an Iraqi man with a gun on top of a nearby building. There is a use of match on action, which shows that both the man and James’s backup are watching him advance towards the car. The man shoots at the car which causes it to set fire and chaos immediately breaks loose. This sequence of disjunctive editing again displays the idea that war is full of unpredictable circumstances that often lead to fatalities, as a civilian lies dead in the street in the aftermath. Sgt. James retrieves a fire extinguisher and puts out the fire, while Sgt. Sanborn scans the area for more possible threats. Suspense and paranoia continues to build as the scene crosscuts from James to Sanborn. When James finally gets the charred car to open, an insert shot displays the large bombs that have been placed in the trunk. An eyeline match presents Sanborn’s overhead visual as he looks down at James from above. Without hesitation, James removes his bomb suit and climbs into the wired car in attempts to disable the