Somewhere Confederate general Robert E. Lee said something like this, that it is good that war is so terrible or else we would grow too fond of it. Lee was a warrior for whom war’s terror mitigated the fascination he felt for it. The recent film The Hurt Locker is a war-action film that explores the character and motivation of a man for whom the rush of warfare is an addiction he just cannot shake.
The film is interesting in a number of ways. It is such a good action film that one reviewer says that if it is not the best of the summer, he will blow up his car. I think he’s kidding. The intriguing thing about this is that this testosterone infused cinema (I estimate it’s EPH* at about 10) was produced and directed by a woman (Karen Bigelow).
It is a film set in contemporary Iraq and follows a team of – I don’t know what they are called – men whose job it is to detect and defuse bombs, hopefully before they detonate. It’s a dicey job, and if the depictions of the Iraqi theater is in any way accurate, it’s a place none of of would want to be. I came away from the film with a deepened appreciation of what those who have been there have seen and faced.
I’m not a big fan of action movies which do not have ‘Bourne’ in the title. This one strives to be something more than an action film. It seems to aim for meaning. I continue to ponder the meaning and potentially redemptive insights of the film. I’m not sure I’ve figured it all out. A second viewing may help me sort that out. Or a third.
What is clear is that these men labor with great intensity and passion to save the lives of others. But there seems to be little offered which will deliver them from the destructive and explosive realities of their own hearts. And that is sad.
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*Explosions per Hour