The Hurt Locker
Zachary Haefeli
Film Essay
HUM-1201
2012 October 18 What is war? The media has struggled and been criticized for this question forever. Year after year films come out portraying what they believe war is actually like. Criticism that comes with these films is pretty extreme and the media gets bashed for certain scenes and some are even famous. War Veterans are the first to comment and obviously have opinions on what the film was depicting and what it left out. The media really cares about soldiers in war movies, and mainly how that soldier is affected from the “abuse” of war. Most of these films have a main character that is plagued by the effect war brings about and follows that character through some extreme plot. One of the more recent war films The Hurt Locker follows a main character and two other soldiers that go through daily struggles of war in Iraq. The low class, undeveloped, and poverished background provides a true test for these men. The audience gets to know these few characters and the how they interact with one another and with themselves. Sergeant James is the main character and leader within this group and also the man who wears the bomb suit. The cover of the film’s DVD has “War is a Drug” printed on the bottom, which is directly portrayed to James. The film follows him not only in war, but also some parts of his home life. He seems not to belong in the regular life and right at home when at war. War films are riddled with stereotypical issues including race and class. Starting out this movie immediately stereotypes the affect that death has in war. A leader of a bomb squad is killed in action and a character in the movie Owen is extremely distraught by the event. This is the first stereotype the movie shows. Owen is very young and looked up to his sergeant and the fact that he was killed forced Owen to see a psychiatric doctor on a daily basis. He felt that if the correct action was taken during the attack that he could have saved his
Film Essay
HUM-1201
2012 October 18 What is war? The media has struggled and been criticized for this question forever. Year after year films come out portraying what they believe war is actually like. Criticism that comes with these films is pretty extreme and the media gets bashed for certain scenes and some are even famous. War Veterans are the first to comment and obviously have opinions on what the film was depicting and what it left out. The media really cares about soldiers in war movies, and mainly how that soldier is affected from the “abuse” of war. Most of these films have a main character that is plagued by the effect war brings about and follows that character through some extreme plot. One of the more recent war films The Hurt Locker follows a main character and two other soldiers that go through daily struggles of war in Iraq. The low class, undeveloped, and poverished background provides a true test for these men. The audience gets to know these few characters and the how they interact with one another and with themselves. Sergeant James is the main character and leader within this group and also the man who wears the bomb suit. The cover of the film’s DVD has “War is a Drug” printed on the bottom, which is directly portrayed to James. The film follows him not only in war, but also some parts of his home life. He seems not to belong in the regular life and right at home when at war. War films are riddled with stereotypical issues including race and class. Starting out this movie immediately stereotypes the affect that death has in war. A leader of a bomb squad is killed in action and a character in the movie Owen is extremely distraught by the event. This is the first stereotype the movie shows. Owen is very young and looked up to his sergeant and the fact that he was killed forced Owen to see a psychiatric doctor on a daily basis. He felt that if the correct action was taken during the attack that he could have saved his