There is no point in my reviewing a motion picture that won the Oscar for Best Picture. Who am I to add to this honor? Here is Ebert’s review written long before the Oscar was awarded.

The clip below shows where the odd title “The Hurt Locker” came from:

This is a film, like many others before, that made me think about the insanity of war. The movie starts out stating that “war is a drug.” When watching this story, we are overwhelmed with suspense. The hero, Sgt. James, is addicted to the adrenaline that comes from having, most likely, the most dangerous job in the world. He puts on a protective bomb suit and walks up to bombs, booby traps and suicide bombers and, with the steady hand of a surgeon and nerves as thick as the steel cables of the Golden Gate Bridge, methodically and carefully, ever so carefully, disarms them. He takes the trigger devices that could have taken his life and collects them in a box under his bed.

The bombs he takes apart are so strong they would obliterate an entire city block. He knows that, and still his hands, with wire cutters, clip the right wires, racing against the clock, in case the bombs are timed, or the  finger of some insurgent watching from a remote window with his cell phone rigged as the detonator trigger. He knows if he makes a mistake, he is vaporized instantly and he won’t even know it happened.

I cannot help but question how our leaders can put young Americans into harm’s way, Hurt Locker harm’s way. Thousands of soldiers have died in Iraq, tens of thousands have been maimed, and even more than that are emotionally scarred for the rest of  their lives. And we did this so Iraqi citizens no longer have to live under Hussein. There were no weapons of mass destruction. There were no connections to Al Qaida. We have no more oil or wealth now. I venture to say we have less. Tell that to the soldier that lost his life in that meaningless war of no consequence but Hurt.

Watching war movies leads me to step onto soap boxes….

The Hurt Locker is a movie you must see as a responsible American.

Rating: ****