Tucker's Take: The Hurt Locker

Hmmm. I'm not really sure where to start with this one. I am rather conflicted... there are my feelings towards the movie as a whole, my feelings about the nitty gritty details, and (I think) more importantly my feelings about how Baghdad 2004-ish shaped my husband. And I will fully admit that, with my husband currently deployed, emotions are running high for me.

See, my husband was there around the time this movie was set (earlier if you want to get more precise). I have heard his tales of what it was like... the streets, the filth, the civilians, the kids, the gunfights erupting out of nowhere on a daily basis. On this front, I felt like the movie put me on those streets, it created the world that my husband has spoken of, the one that I always tried to picture but never could get right. I felt the tension and anxiety and paranoia (often completely warranted) and the fear and the bravado and the constantly conflicting emotions. I felt the camraderie and the anguish and the chaos and I saw each character trying to find any way to cope. I watched as young men faced their own mortailty, sometimes responding with all the swagger of John Wayne on steroids, sometimes pulling so far into themselves they needed help coming back. I felt like the movie, as well as it could in it's setting (combat), did a good job capturing the spectacular array of emotions, the vast ways they cope, the things they do to get by, they ways they struggle to connect with the outside world.

It did a great job getting me to think. Think about what it was like for my soldier (we weren't together at that time, it was a tough deployment that ended with more than a few of his soldiers & friends KIA and a Purple Heart for my husband). How did he cope? Was the the calm, cool-headed one? The risky one, because his life back home was imploding? Was he by the books or playing by his own rules? Was he the one who retreated into himself? The one riddled with fear or guilt? Or the one who put on the brave face or dolled out the jokes? What was it really like for him? On this front- I think the movie was a HUGE success. Emotionally, it was subtle but complex (so many things were conveyed in an almost covert manner, a few phrases, a look, or a gesture were abe to speak volumes, I was impressed by this), varied and seemingly authentic. It was true to the fact that not all soldiers are alike, they deal with their own issues in ways to varied to list, not all have emotional struggles, and not all are John Wayne, some want out, some want back in the fight. Our Armed Forces take all kinds, and are, ultimately, more successful for it.

Now, I don't know any EOD guys. Nor can I speak to the autenticity of the EOD specific parts of the movie. But I did appreciate that there wasn't a cheesy, swelling soundtrack to up the drama. It was dramatic enough on its own and I'm glad they respected that. I was grateful that the explosions weren't over the top and that there weren't any ridiculous special effects. I was pleased that they touched on the relationships with the locals that are sometimes formed, the connections that are made with the people and the country they are fighting for. I was also very glad they touched on how surreal it is for soldiers to come home. 365 days of near death, constant threat, adrenaline, fear, bravery, insanity- and then *poof*- you are faced with the cereal isle in the grocery store. That is real. And that is, often, a huge issue for many returning soldiers. How do you go from one to the other in the 48 hours it takes to fly home?

What also struck me was how unnatural it is for young men (and women) to be facing death with such intensity. I can't imagine how being intimately and acutely aware of your own mortality at such a young age colors the choices you make. Does it make you more wreckless (is that why SSG James is the way he is?)? Or does it make you more cautious? Does it make you reassess your priorities (like SGT Sanborn)? Or does it simply change who you are at your very core? Most people don't face their mortality so frankly until they are much older and wiser, after their big life choices are made. How do you deal with this when you are barely drinking age, newly married, or just out of college? How?

Lastly, the thing that will stick with me most was what SSG James said at the end, "...the older you get the fewer things you love...". Part of me disagrees, and part of me thinks that truer words have rarely been spoken. I do think, the older you get, the more focused your love gets. The silly things do fade away, the little things don't matter as much, and the big thing(s) crystalize and pull away from the others. But your capacity to love, I think, increases if you choose to let it in... maybe combat changes that, I can't say. Yes, there are guys like him, who are both selfish and selfless, who love the combat, the job, the rush, the Army (et al) more than anything else. And honestly, I'm grateful for them, because they are the ones walking into the fight as everyone else is running out. Where would be we without guys like that?

Yes, there are little things like ACUs on every soldier (most guys were still in DCUs in 2004) and other things that I can't 100% speak to because I'm not the expert. But overall, I would definatley recommend this movie, if only to get you thinking about the emotional complexities of war without the prototypical "Vet/Soldier on the Brink of a PTSD Meltdown" cloud cast over the characters. But also because I think this is Hollywood's best recent attempt to get it right. It isn't 100% there, but its a whole lot closer than anything else I've seen.