The Second Last Movie I Saw

Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is a fairly compelling, suspenseful film following the exploits of a team of IED defusers in Iraq, most of whom would rather be anywhere else, and one of whom seems to get off on the danger. All of this is pretty clear within the first half hour or so, so the suspense has little to do with what we might learn about the characters and pretty much everything to do with wondering who, if any of them will not survive. It's extremely well-made, and totally apolitical (at least as far as I can see)-- it's not even particularly clear whether Bigelow sympathises more with the danger junkie or his more tormented comrades. Maybe that's central to her point, namely that the circumstances these individuals find themselves in are worlds away from the particular issues that put them in that spot to begin with. Our sympathy for them is largely a function of proximity, but it's not entirely exclusive to these soldiers, with at least some effort to expand it to the Iraqis themselves, who as often as not are mere spectators to the actions of the protagonists (though obviously, some of them are something more). One also can't help but recognize that the consequences of the terrorist methods fall most harshly and largely indiscriminately on the natives themselves. I suppose that hints at a statement somewhat more sophisticated than what is revealed strictly through the plot, but I'm also not sure that I'm not projecting my own views onto what I saw (probably inevitable anyway). I'm not sure the film quite lives up to the raves some critics have given it, but in comparison a lot of other summer movies I've seen, it definitely deserves praise. I just wish it had engaged me a bit more on the emotional level.