Hurt Locker Analysis

1. The Hurt Locker is a film based on the actual war we are living today. Through out this film the audience experiences the danger the soldiers live every minute of the day and how they deal with it. We understand that every time the soldiers go out on a mission they have 50% chance of living and 50% chance of dying, they communicate their feelings and the risks they run while completing the mission. However, the most sad thing about this situation is that when a soldier dies is just ine more of the many soldiers that have died for the same reason, it's nothing more than that.

2. The film was shot in Jordan within miles of the Iraqi border; this gave the film a Middle East heat. The Director's work was very clear in letting her actors know what they needed to do and as a result the film came up great. The places she chose were the appropriate for each scene and the way the story was developed was the most adequate. The film is very recent, it was released on June 29, 2009, but the premier was at the Venice Film Festival in Italy during 2008. The Hurt Locker is not the first film about this topic, other films such as Stop-Loss (2008), In the Valley of Elah (2007), and Lions for Lambs (2007) have experienced this subject. However, the Hurt Locker has been more successful in theaters than the mentioned films before. Some of the thematic threads are "Dying for your country, but at the end you're just one more of many that are like you", "every second counts; live it or regret it later", "danger is what makes us differentiate between peaceful and suspenful moments".

3. The acting was critical and the actors acomplished the goal, which was to transmit what's a soldier's life like. The moments of suspence, the audience felt it and they shared that feeling with the character. The costume was okay, the actors were in their army uniforms and when it wasn't like that they were wearing casual and modern cloths. The Visual style was the appropiate for all kind of scence, from the most sensible and calm scene to the most dynamic and explosive scene; the visuality was okay. Obviously the Iconography were the images where "James" was dressing up to go and disconnect a bomb because it symbolized life or death. One of the first scenes was when another soldier like James died diconnecting  a bomb and now the audience was sensible about that part. Overall the production design was very good and they did their a great job so everything else was great too.

4. The cinematography was excellent, all the shots were focus on something and each one was important for the development of the film. There were all types of shots; one that i saw often was action/reaction shot, very important. Also the lighting of the scenes was good, there was always enough light. The style of this film is realistic, it has continuity shots and no jump cuts. The angles were well chosen, when they changed angles the story took a new perspective not only in the visualization, but in the story. Also the camera distance was used here, because is a war the audience needed to see the scene from distance to locate the character and not get lost. However, close ups were used here in the opened vs. closed forms.