The Hurt Locker: Movie Analysis

Veterans of the war in Iraq are frustrated with the film The Hurt Locker in the way that it inaccurately portrays the process of a mission involving the disarming of roadside bombs. In movies, the ideas and concepts of things that we have not yet experienced in our own lives subconsciously instills itself in our minds and everyday thoughts. For example, when the mind thinks of any crime, like murder, a bank robbery, or being in jail, if you have not experienced these things first-hand, then there is no real way of knowing exactly what those things are like. But we think that movies give us all of the information that we need to know. War is the best example of this. By watching war films, the average civilian thinks that they have a general

James defies the fear and sense of alertness that goes along with disarming these bombs. He is reckless, calm, casual, idiotic, and arrogant. But what allows him to be like this and succeed at what he does is his expertise in defusing the IEDs. This personality in a war highly unlikely. Sgt. James acts like he doesn’t care, and as if what he is doing is easy. This is what infuriates the veterans. They think they way he went about the missions and defusing the IEDs was absurd and not at all what it is really like. A bomb disposal team leader said in an article from 2010 in the Air Force Times that the main character’s “swagger would put a whole team at risk. Our team leaders don't have that kind of invincibility complex, and if they do, they aren't allowed to operate. A team leader's first priority is getting his team home in one piece." Recklessness was a constant theme throughout the film. Another theme throughout the story is the helplessness and the difference between America and Iraq. In one scene, there was an innocent man who was forced to be a suicide bomber. He was slowly walking towards the U.S. Army as they were yelling at him to stop and open his jacket. He finally listened and revealed a vest that had been locked to himself with several explosives, with a timer near its end. Sgt. James tried to clip all the locks from the man’s vest, but time was running out. There were too many locks and too little time, and there was nothing in their control of what was

It causes for a sense of under-appreciation from the civilians towards the efforts made by people in the military to protect America. No one would ever be as reckless and nonchalant as Sgt. James