The Hurt Locker is a heart-pounding wartime thriller set during the Iraq War that leaves you on the edge of your seat holding your breath from start to finish. The film begins by displaying “War is a drug”. Like all drugs, some become addicted and have a difficult, if not impossible, time adjusting to the life away from war. The Hurt Locker is not a film about dealing with life away from war, but rather highlights the differences in wartime experience. In many serious war films, soldiers long to be home with their loved ones and for a normal existence. The Hurt Locker shows that some soldiers become completely immersed in the wartime lifestyle and enjoy the dangerous day-to-day tasks.

Staff Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) spends every day of his tour of duty disarming a seemingly never-ending number of bombs throughout Iraqi cities. He does his job enormously well, something that wins the respect of many of his superior officers. Yet his style of disarming bombs is much to the chagrin of the two other soldiers in his unit. James doesn’t follow protocol. Sgt. J.T. Sanborn, (Anthony Mackie) the man tasked with overseeing any surrounding danger while James disarms the bombs, is constantly stressed about possible dangers.

Sanborn wants to play everything by the books because he wants to go home alive. James dives into his tasks headfirst, ignoring and refusing to respond to commentary Sanford tells him about through his headset radio.  Where the men are supposed to send robots to assess the situation and then move in slowly in super protective suits, James often rushes into the situation with little fear of consequences that come with failure.

Although many people are evacuated from the area it’s hardly ever secured. Many people still watch the soldiers attempt to do their job on the street below. On several occasions these men are the actual insurgents who planted the bombs. The missions are made all the worse by the presence of these suspicious bystanders. Men holding possible detonation devices and others filming the area worry Sanborn and the audience alike but do not seem to faze James. He realizes that he will either succeed or that he will be killed.

James doesn’t hold some highfalutin rationale for his serving in the armed forces or for his risky strategy. He simply knows he is the best at his job and believes that the best should be working on the most dangerous tasks.  The character is multifaceted and complex, an anomaly in the so many movies based on the war experience. Staff Sgt. William James is made all the more powerful by the superb work by Jeremy Renner who should definitely rewarded come award season.

The Hurt Locker provides thrills and suspense in part because of Renner’s acting but also because of the way the movie is filmed. Kathyrn Bigelow uses long takes to create tension and doesn’t rely on false gimmicks to affect the audience. It could be surprising to some that a female director could make such a gritty and realistic war film, but her masterful hold on shot length does just that.

Case and point, The Hurt Locker is one of the year’s best films and one that shouldn’t be missed. It is suspenseful, thrilling, and also thought provoking. It’s a film that you will be talking about after you leave the theater and one that everyone will be talking about when discussing the industry’s top awards.