The Hurt Locker

THE HURT LOCKER joins HBO's GENERATION KILL in its powerful portrayal of the incredible tension and continual anxiety endured by soldiers in wartime.  Here, three members of a bomb-defusing unit do their jobs: two help the third don a spacesuit/firefighter's gear and then stay in radio contact as he works on the bomb: finding it, clipping the appropriate wires, finding its detonator and whether it is on a timer.  The other two are also constantly looking for enemy sniper fire in the small city where much of the movie occurs.  Such danger can come from apparent civilians with video cameras or young boys selling DVDs. 

Director Kathryn Bigelow has chosen hand-held camera work, for the most part, which adds to the already extreme tension felt by the audience just because of the subject matter.  The movie isn't for the faint of heart, but you'll come away with more understanding of why war is so awful.