The Hurt Locker

At various times while watching The Hurt Locker, I thought I had a handle on it. At first, I thought it was a flipped Platoon, with the new addition to the team being the loose cannon. Later, it seemed like the story of a soldier going rogue and waging a one-man war. Later still, a commentary on PTSD. And it is kind of all of these. But The Hurt Locker isn't really anything, which was its biggest downfall for me. I'm grateful it wasn't a shallow piece of war propaganda, glorifying the battlefield or trying to restore pride to the lost cause that was Iraq War Redux. And the performances, especially Anthony Mackie, were good. But it never felt more like a series of scenes with the loose connective tissue of the characters themselves. There's a sequence, then another, and another, and nothing seems to carry from one scene to the next. I kept wondering when something would come along and tie this all together, give The Hurt Locker a through-line, but it never happens. Unless the through-line is "war is complicated and often ugly", which Oscar has already awarded. All the way back in the 30's, in fact, in a much better movie. Overall, this was just kind of forgettable and bland. I like the acting, but it's in service of a movie with little substance to it. I avoided seeing this when it came out, and now I see my instincts were correct.