What did you think of theOscar-wining film on a bomb disposal team in Bagdhad, The Hurt Locker?
Overall, "The Hurt Locker" is boring but well-made. The tension is high, the cinematography is beautiful, and the story is told with a good sense of urgency. But it is paced like a snail and even the charismatic presense of Jeremy Renner doesn’t help keep you locked into the film for it’s overly long 131 minutes.
As for whether it is a realistic look at what bomb disposal squads go through, it doesn’t really matter because this is a narrative film, not a documentary. Obviously, liberties are going to be taken to make the film do whatever the director wants it to do. Ultimately, it is the director’s work of art and Kathryn Bigelow made a very artistically good film which garnered her film a deserving 6 Oscars.
Much less authentic than Generation Kill or Over There, both TV series. An all around disappointment – an absurd view of bomb disposal people, which manages to miss on every level – dramatically and as a reflection of any kind of reality. The vignette of panicky SAS soldiers relying on bomb disposal engineers to defend them against snipers was just daft. I am amazed it won those Oscars. You briefly mention a Scottish soldier who lives in Suffolk in the book. Do you meet many East Anglian soldiers? There are two officers from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Andy Rogers and Beatie Barclay MC, who live in Snape near my home. Both were at Woodbridge School. I also ran into an SAS officer who used to live in Leiston, and many hundreds based in Woodbridge and Colchester, which is the headquarters of 16 Air Assault Brigade, and of course the Apache pilots and crews are at Wattisham. Where else in the world have you reported and what has been the trickiest/most dangerous situation you h
