The Hurt Locker -Drunk Rant

The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker has been receiving an utterly ridiculous amount of praise since its release way back last year in the US. Having won Best Picture at the Oscars as well, one would only expect an absolutely stellar film – and this is quite surprising considering most films based on War are usually overtly patriotic and far too over the top in its gore (I don’t care what you say, Saving Private Ryan wasn’t that good).

So with the film finally seeing the light of day on Australian shores, albeit exceptionally late, does it really live up to its reputation as the Best Picture of 2009?

Well, arguably, yes.

And this is the funniest part about the film. There were a lot of good films released in 2009; District 9, Up, Star Trek and Coraline to name a few, so The Hurt Locker being the cream of the crop is certainly some kind of massive achievement.

To quickly set the scene, the story follows the journey of Sergeant First Class William James as he leads two other specialist soldiers, going around Iraq disabling IED’s – or in English, bombs. The viewer is essentially sucked into the film and gets the closest possible experience of what it’s like to have a very large bomb right next to you, and you have to disarm it.

That’s really the plot in a nutshell, but it works very well. It’s a simple premise but the complex emotions that are grinded throughout each scene, the intensity of each moment and the personalities of the characters are utterly fantastic in execution. James (played by Jeremy Renner) is an interesting character in that he seems to be almost infatuated with his job, which is defusing a bomb that could kill him at the slightest mistake. He certainly shows his prowess through the film – he keeps his cool regardless of situation, and when working away at a bomb he tends to have near clairvoyant levels of focus with them. He’s a master at his job, and Renner presents this amazingly well as the movie plays out.

But with his mastery, even more emotions get in the way of things with many complicated and chilling scenes later on in the film, and it begs to question what goes through the head of these soldiers as they experience these things; you think you understand each character as the movie progresses, but then something happens that will completely change your opinion and outlook on them.

The Hurt Locker is a complex film. It’s not for everyone either. It’s a very hard film to watch and is only for the people that really enjoy something that delves into the minds of a character and plays with human emotion. It will likely be discussed in a few years on among students in film study, as each character can be studied and looked into for what they represent, feel and how they are in general. It is an extremely well presented, well paced and overall well made film that, if you enjoy it, will stimulate your brain on levels that many of the movies of 2009 will not even touch. Highly recommended film, and one of the best War movies I’ve seen in quite some time.

5/5

-Drunk Rant

My Dinner with Andre -Drunk Rant

 

 

My Dinner with Andre 

 

My Dinner with Andre takes place solely as a dinner conversation with two friends, two thinking analyzing friends at that. It is a brain full of thoughts to ponder. Full of jumpy subject matter that could give you a headache but also stimulate your thinking.
There is no way to cover all the subjects quickly poked at you throughout this film. It is definitely one to be seen more than once to even come close to give the thought to all the points.

 

 Most of the movie

This movie to me proves a point that I have increasingly felt has come to the fore in my life. That is, No matter what we feel on a matter we can support it. We can say on one hand, “life is getting better” and we can say on the other hand, “Life is getting worse”. We can point to answers in within the same society to justify both.
The main question may be are we living mechanically or in some way found out how to live by our own design. Unfortunately, it will always come back to being able to view things either way. If one is content just sitting with no purpose and one is content only with some sort of purpose (like reading a book) which is living mechanically?
Either way the scary thought portrayed is the idea that we may be only acting and not living according to our self.
One point brought up is how we tend to look at events in which seem to tell us something based on their significant meaning and closeness to our life. In which they may even point us in a direction due to the progress of events that are presently affecting us.
“A group of meaningless facts that are collected and interpreted in a scientific way may quite possibly be relevant”
“They are based on experiments that can be repeated”
What about the thought of omens or the future telling us where to go in the present. Is it a way to let ourselves off the hook as to what we should do, not taking responsibility for what we do? Could it not just be events that – Just Happen?
This film is interesting. Watch it only when you are up for a long conversation. Otherwise it may be boring.
Drink of choice is a glass of roster 47 followed by amaretto.

-Drunk Rant