4 stars****
It’s easy to see why this two hour+ movie has been insatiable taking in award after award these past few months.
It plays out like a documentary, but it’s a fictionalized account of some real events in Iraq. The attention to detail is incredible showing that quality research is essential in movie making. It keeps your interest rate high throughout, never allowing you to dismiss the high element of fear in the daily lives of these army bomb disposal experts; not a role we’d all take on with relish.
So what’s it all about:
An American war film, shadowing a United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team. Staring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty as members of a U.S. Army EOD unit in Iraq and follows their tour together as they contend with defusing bombs, the threat of insurgency, and the tension that develops among them. The film was shot in Jordan, within miles of the Iraqi border.
The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow (yes, the ex-Mrs James Cameron). She’s completed an excellent assignment making this feel ‘real’ like a documentary, while also acting as the movie’s producer. She gets to let herself know how the budget is disappearing compared to filming.
The screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was entrenched as a journalist in 2004 with a US bomb squad in Iraq. It shows; his research is faultless, leaving us all with a feeling of really understanding the problems faced by the troops at the front line.
Not surprising are the nominations for nine Academy Awards and it won six, including Best Picture and Best Director for Bigelow, becoming the first woman to win the award. The film also cleaned up the 2010 BAFTA Awards, winning best film, director, original screenplay, editing, cinematography and sound.
If you want an idea of life is really like for the troops out in Iraq and you wonder what day to day life is like for the locals, this is your movie.
Popularity: 5% [?]
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