Tuesday, August 4, 2009

The Hurt Locker and other stuff

THE HURT LOCKER
Finally saw The Hurt Locker last week. It was intense and awesome, but also a bit different. First of all, there was pretty much no conventional plot. Just three soldiers defusing bombs in Iraq. Although it may have gotten bogged down a few times in between action scenes, that can mostly be blamed on waiting for next adrenaline rush, which is totally worth it, as director Kathryn Bigelow will have you gripping the armrests for most of the film.
Also, it wasn't really about the Iraq war. After the crapfest of Iraq war movies the past few years, it was nice to see a modern war film that didn't make a political statement. In that way, it is similar to Saving Private Ryan. Although that is a superior film to The Hurt Locker, both use the wars they are set in as a backdrop for in-depth looks into what causes a soldier to go to war and what keeps them going as they live through what could be the closest thing to hell on earth.
The film also confirmed what a film nerd I am. I thought the music sounded a lot like the score from 3:10 to Yuma, so I wasn't surprised to see in the credits that it was the same composer. And when the main character, Sergeant James, was shopping for cereal in the grocery store, was I the only one who noticed the camera pan from Life cereal to Lucky Charms? The scene says more in one minute than all of Michael Bay's movies combined.
Bigelow made what many are calling a masterpiece and there are numerous scenes like the one I mentioned above that speak to the level of quality filmmaking this movie reaches. I wouldn't be surprised to see it listed in the future with movies like Apocalypse Now and Saving Private Ryan as one of the great war films of all time.
Dan-o-Meter: 9 out of 10

Other stuff...
I think Joba read my last post. He is on a tear since the all-star break. Hopefully we can beat Boston this weekend and hold on to 1st place. No comments on Big Needle-y, I mean Papi, except to say that I am not at all surprised, and to be honest, don't really care. It's always fun to make fun of Red Sox fan's though, so I won't say a part of me didn't enjoy the news...

3 comments:

Emily said...

Dan, I didn't even notice the cereal thing you talked about. you've got great eyes. lafsc taught you well. what do you think that metaphor meant? haha.

yankeedjw said...

Well, Emily. I think the metaphor exemplified his struggle between a normal "Life" at home and a "Lucky" life at war where chance basically determined whether he lived or died. I didn't notice which one he picked up, but if I had to guess, I would say Lucky Charms.

This feels almost like a google group response, btw, haha. And yes, lafsc, taught me well. Not many people picked up on the squares and circles in Up either... :)

Emily said...

haha. wow! you would have made our lafsc profs proud with that explanation. almost as great as your "ear" speech. i agree that he probably would have picked "lucky charms" (they have marshmallows so they taste better anyways). This does feel like a google group response. good times (ok, not really, but i do miss lafsc). i didn't pick up the squares and circles in "Up!" I guess I suck at spotting metaphors when I am not doing it for a class assignment.