Finally a war movie that doesn’t glorify American firepower, isn’t deafening, doesn’t show people being killed, blown apart or merely wounded, yet has far greater impact. “The Hurt Locker” is about the bomb demolition soldiers who face certain death every day in Iraq. Watching the bomb squad searching for IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) in the debris-strewn streets of Baghdad is riveting. Indeed, some people might find it too hard to watch. For sheer suspense, nothing can beat the scene where Bravo Company’s Sergeant Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) works to defuse a suicide bomber. Sanborn eventually rejoins his young family in the US, but he’s adrift in the world of safe domesticity, not because he’s addicted to war, as has been written, but because in doing the world’s most dangerous job he’s fully alive. Add these names to your Oscar nomination list: Anthony Mackie for best actor and Kathryn Bigelow for best director.
