EZE DIRECTORY

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It's finally here: the war movie this era needs. For years, directors have been trying to turn our attentions to Iraq, and for years, few have listened. Unapologetically blunt and undeniably gifted, Kathryn Bigelow isn't the kind of filmmaker who expects to go unnoticed.

Striding forcefully into their all-male terrain, Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal pull us along with them, insistent that we see war as soldiers do, in all its brutal, romantic, senseless, predictable, terrifying, and even addictive ways.

In one of many smart choices, they broaden their scope by narrowing their focus, towards three members of an Army bomb squad. The team has just a month left in Baghdad, but for men who defuse explosives around the clock, a month may as well be a lifetime.

Sergeant Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) are on the brink of physical and emotional exhaustion when Staff Sergeant James (Jeremy Renner) arrives, to replace the guy who got blown up before him.

Sanborn and Eldridge are counting the days until they leave, so they're none too thrilled when James turns out to be a cowboy with an apparent death wish. No bomb is too dangerous to approach, no risk too extreme to take.

Unafraid to push everybody - including the audience - to the brink, Bigelow shows us how young men raised on adrenaline-pumped movies like hers respond when they find themselves in a starring role. To her eyes, it's inevitable that modern soldiers, who spend their days edgily scanning windows and dark alleys, relax by playing video games that offer a safer version of the same nerve-wracking rush.

The film opens and closes with an unnecessarily heavy hand, but everything in between is edge-of-your-seat, burrow-into-your-brain stuff. And what you'll remember most will be Renner's remarkably complex commander. By the time we finally figure him out, it's become clear we've witnessed a star-making performance, in a movie that deserves to stand as one of the defining films of the decade.

Article Source: Daily Times