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The Hurt Locker

Directed by	Kathryn Bigelow
Written by	Mark Boal
Produced by	Tony Mark (executive) Nicolas Chartier Kathryn Bigelow Mark Boal Greg Shapiro Donall McCusker (co-producer)
Starring	Jeremy Renner Anthony Mackie Brian Geraghty Evangeline Lilly Ralph Fiennes David Morse Guy Pearce Christian Camargo
Cinematography	Barry Ackroyd
Edited by	Chris Innis Bob Murawski
Music by	Marco Beltrami Buck Sanders
Distributed by	Summit Entertainment
Release dates	October 10, 2008 (Italy) June 26, 2009 (US, limited)
Running time	131 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$11,000,000 (estimate)
Box office	$1,242,340 (to date) (worldwide)

The Hurt Locker is a 2009 American award-winning war thriller directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Shot on location in Jordan, the film is based on recently declassified information about a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) (bomb squad) team in present day Iraq. The Hurt Locker is written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded with a bomb squad.

The Hurt Locker was picked up by distributor Summit Entertainment. The film was released in the U.S. on June 26, 2009 in New York and Los Angeles, with plans to go wider in July. The film had the highest per-screen theater average box office of any film its opening weekend, grossing $36,000 average per screen in its first limited release weekend.

Plot

In Iraq, a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit is forced to play a dangerous game of cat and mouse in the chaos of war in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb. Jeremy Renner plays the leader of the EOD team, as he contends with not only defusing bombs in the backdrop of a war, but also the psychological and emotional strain that it inflicts.

Overview

The Hurt Locker stars 2009 Independent Spirit Award best acting nominees Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie, as well as Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, Brian Geraghty, and Evangeline Lilly.

The script was written by first-time screenwriter Mark Boal, a freelance writer who has contributed to Playboy, The Village Voice and Rolling Stone magazines and who also wrote the short story that inspired the film In the Valley of Elah. Boal spent time embedded with a real bomb squad, which was a source for the story.

Other members of the key filmmaking crew include director of photography Barry Ackroyd, film editors Chris Innis and Bob Murawski, production designer Karl Júlíusson, production sound mixer Ray Beckett, and costume designer George Little. The film's real explosions and special effects were designed by Richard Stutsman and his team. The score was composed by Academy Award nominated composer Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders.

The Hurt Locker was shot mainly on location in the Middle East, over forty-four days from July to September 2007, during the height of the Iraq war surge. Often four or more camera crews filmed simultaneously, which resulted in nearly 200 hours of footage.

Although the filmmakers scouted for locations in Morocco, director Kathryn Bigelow sought greater authenticity and decided to film in Jordan because of its close proximity to Iraq. Some of the locations were less than three miles from the Iraqi border. All the Iraqi roles in the film were played by displaced Iraqi war refugees living in Jordan, many of them trained actors who had been forced to flee their country.

Lead actor Jeremy Renner, who trained with real EOD teams prior to shooting the film, says that great pains were taken to ensure the film's authenticity. According to Renner, shooting the film in the Middle East contributed to this. "There were two by fours with nails being dropped from two-story buildings that hit me in the helmet and they were throwing rocks... we got shot at a few times while we were filming," Renner said. "When you see it, you're gonna feel like you've been in war."

"You can't fake that amount of heat," Anthony Mackie who plays Sgt. Sanborn says, adding, "When you are on set and all of the extras are Iraqi refugees, it really informs the movie that you're making. When you start hearing the stories from a true perspective... of people who were actually there, it gives you a clear viewpoint of where you are as an artist and the story you would like to tell. It was a great experience to be there."

According to screenwriter Boal, "It's the first movie about the Iraq war that purports to show the experience of the soldiers." "We wanted to show the kinds of things that soldiers go through that you can't see on CNN." He adds, "Most war movies don't come out until after the war is over. It's really exciting for me, coming out of the world of journalism, to have a movie come out about a conflict while the conflict is still going on."

Premieres and festival screenings

The world premiere of The Hurt Locker was at the 65th Annual Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy, on September 4th, 2008. According to VARIETY, the bomb-squad actioner "jolted Venice" with high-adrenaline, receiving a ten minute standing ovation.

The film also won the SIGNIS grand prize at the Venice film festival. According to the jury’s statement, the motivation for this choice is "the filmmakers' uncompromising approach to the Iraq war and its consequences seen through the experience of the bomb technicians for whom war is an addiction rather than a cause. The film challenges the audience’s view of war in general and the current war in particular because it demonstrates the struggle between violence to the body and psychological alienation." The Hurt Locker received several other awards in Venice, including the Arca Cinemagiovani Award (Arca Young Cinema Award) for "Best Film Venezia 65" (chosen by an international youth jury); the Human Rights Film Network Award; and the "La Navicella" – Venezia Cinema Award.

The film's North American premiere was at the 33rd annual Toronto International Film Festival, where it was listed as being among the "top 6 picks" of the festival. Festival co-director Bailey says that The Hurt Locker "unlocked the key to making a film about the Iraq War. It transcends what is going on in the headlines... and finds something that's mysterious and symbolic." Entertainment Weekly's film critic Lisa Schwarzbaum listed the film as her number one find at Toronto, adding: "Jeremy Renner gives a knockout performance... Every step he takes is truly a matter of life and death — for him as well as for the soldiers he serves with... the anxiety and tension of battle (are compressed) into every frame."

The Hurt Locker is currently on a film festival world tour, having been screened out of competition at the Zurich Film Festival and the 37th Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montreal. It was scheduled as the opening film at the Mar del Plata Film Festival in Argentina in mid-November 2008 and at the Fifth Dubai International Film Festival on December 16, 2008. The film premiered at the 2008 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia, and also at the Göteborg International Film Festival in Sweden in January 2009.

The Hurt Locker was screened at the 2009 tenth annual Film Comment Selects Festival of the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The 2009 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas also included The Hurt Locker screening out-of-competition.

The film was a centerpiece presentation at the third annual 2009 AFI Dallas International Film Festival, where director Bigelow received an honorary Dallas Star Award. The Hurt Locker also screened in Bologna, Italy as part of the 2009 Bologna Human Rights Nights Film Festival which ran from March 27, 2009 through April 5, 2009. The Hurt Locker has also screened at The Seattle International Film Festival in May 2009 and at the 2009 Philadelphia Film Festival.

Reception

The Hurt Locker has been very well received among critics, with a 93 average rating on Metacritic and a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics". Several reviewers have described it as the best film yet made about the Iraq war.

Reviewing the film for TIME magazine at Venice, film critic Richard Corliss said, "The Hurt Locker is a near-perfect movie about men in war, men at work. Through sturdy imagery and violent action, it says that even Hell needs heroes." Toronto Star critic Peter Howell said, "Just when you think the battle of Iraq war dramas has been fought and lost, along comes one that demands to be seen... If you can sit through The Hurt Locker without your heart nearly pounding through your chest, you must be made of granite." Entertainment Weekly's film critic Lisa Schwarzbaum gave the film the rare "A" rating, calling it, "an intense, action-driven war pic, a muscular, efficient standout that simultaneously conveys the feeling of combat from within as well as what it looks like on the ground. This ain't no war videogame."

Film critic Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times praised the film with, "The Hurt Locker has killer impact... Overwhelmingly tense, overflowing with crackling verisimilitude, it's the film about the war in Iraq that we've been waiting for."

The New York Times film critic A.O. Scott wrote of the film, "The Hurt Locker is the best nondocumentary American feature made yet about the war in Iraq... You may emerge from “The Hurt Locker” shaken, exhilarated and drained, but you will also be thinking." Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal called it, "A first-rate action thriller, a vivid evocation of urban warfare in Iraq, a penetrating study of heroism and a showcase for austere technique, terse writing and a trio of brilliant performances."

Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun Times gave it his rare four stars rating stating, "The Hurt Locker is a spellbinding war film... The suspense is real, and it is earned... Staff Sgt. James is played by Jeremy Renner, who immediately goes on the short list for an Oscar nomination. His performance is not built on complex speeches but on a visceral projection of who this man is and what he feels."

Variety's Derek Elley gave one of the only negative reviews, saying, "war may be hell, but watching war movies can also be hell." Elley nonetheless praised the film's editing, cinematography, costume and production design adding, "lensing is highly emotive, equally textured in sun and shade, catching the immensely realistic detail in pic's production and costume design... Editing of the mountain of footage is aces, kinetic." Other Variety critics have praised the film, such as Anne Thompson who called the film, "riveting and intense" and who regularly writes about the film on her blog, Thompson on Hollywood.

Box Office

The film had the highest per-screen theater average box office of any film its opening weekend, grossing $36,000 average per screen in its first limited release weekend, besting box office hit, Transformers. It has continued to hold the highest per-screen-average of any movie playing theatrically in the U.S. for the past three weeks, as it gradually rolls out to wider distribution.

Awards and nominations

Besides the four award wins and five nominations at the Venice Film Festival, The Hurt Locker was also nominated for International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography CAMERIMAGE PLUS Grand Prix Golden Frog award for best cinematography by Barry Ackroyd. Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie were nominated for best acting categories for the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards. The AFI Dallas 2009 International Film Festival has awarded the AFI DALLAS honorary Star Award to the film's director, Bigelow. The film's director has also received recognition from ShoWest, the annual film exhibition confab in Las Vegas. At the 14th Annual Nantucket International Film Festival in Massachusetts, the Showtime Tony Cox Award for Screenwriting was awarded to The Hurt Locker screenwriter, Mark Boal.

Year	Award	Result	Category	Recipients
2008	Venice Film Festival Golden Lion	Nominated	Best Film	The Hurt Locker
	Venice Film Festival SIGNIS Grand Prize	Won	Best Film
	Venice Film Festival - Arca Cinemagiovani Award (Arca Young Cinema Award)	Won	Best Film Venezia 65
	Venice Film Festival Human Rights Film Network Award	Won	Best Film
	Venice Film Festival Young Cinema Award - "La Navicella"	Won	Best Film
	CAMERIMAGE PLUS Grand Prix - "Golden Frog"	Nominated	Best Cinematography	Barry Ackroyd
2009	Independent Spirit Awards	Nominated	Best Actor	Jeremy Renner
	Independent Spirit Awards	Nominated	Best Supporting Actor	Anthony Mackie
	Seattle International Film Festival	Won	Best Director	Kathryn Bigelow
	Nantucket International Film Festival	Won	Best Screenplay	Mark Boal

References

External links

v t e Films directed by Kathryn Bigelow
The Loveless (1981) Near Dark (1987) Blue Steel (1990) Point Break (1991) Strange Days (1995) The Weight of Water (2000) K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) The Hurt Locker (2008) Zero Dark Thirty (2012) Last Days (2014; short documentary) Detroit (2017)

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