For soldiers, Hurt Locker sets off explosions of laughter

[Oregone]

There sits Staff Sergeant William James, the bomb technician at the centre of The Hurt Locker, lighting a cigarette and bragging about his credentials. "I saw a little bit in Afghanistan, too," he says on his first Hummer ride with his new team.

Heading into Sunday's Academy Awards, The Hurt Locker is a favourite, as it has been with critics and at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards last month. With nine Oscar nominations, it's heralded for its documentary style, based on a script by a reporter who embedded with a bomb team, and billed by the LA Times as "overflowing with crackling verisimilitude."

But the film's admirers don't include those who actually do the job - defusing or destroying makeshift bombs. Canadian explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) soldiers in Kandahar, one of Afghanistan's most volatile and bomb-laden provinces, say their life is no Hurt Locker.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/for-soldiers-hurt-locker-sets-off-explosions-of-laughter/article1490605/

[AwakeAtLast]

1. I think it's just like doctors and nurses who say the same thing about hospital scenes

I would think it would be extremely difficult to get it exactly right considering the subject matter.

[Oregone]

5. Well, you think they could of had some experienced guys on for consulting

But thats not the problem probably. I mean, I bet they did have some people with real experience involved because they got it half right. The rest of what they didn't get right was probably due to Hollywood trying to spice it up a bit. I mean, they don't want to show a guy spending 12 hours defusing a car bomb, right? :)

I was turned off by the flick because I thought it just made these people a little too alpha male badass. A much shittier movie was "Blown Away", but they really seemed to spend time making the people look human with real fear (like the Forest Whitaker scene). Sometimes when you spice it up too much to appeal to people, you lose some authenticity.

Congrats to the director and all...just not my pick. :)

[PaddyBlueEyes]

2. Its pretty hard to accurately portray that gig

especially without exposing billion dollar actors to turning into pureed actors.....

[kimi]

3. I've heard that those of us

with loved ones over there, might not want to see this film. I'm kind of on the fence. I guess I'll wait to see if my hubby thinks I should see it, if he sees it, since he's there.

[BlueIris]

6. "The Messenger" is the better of the two critically acclaimed war movies from last year.

But...if a relative or friend is in combat right now, I can't really recommend "The Messenger," either. Maybe after s/he/they are home. Maybe not.

[MadBadger]

4. And yet Critics always talk about how realistic this movie was!

When really they know jack shit.

[PaddyBlueEyes]

7. I was in Moghadishu in '93

BlackHawk Down was pretty close to the real deal.

[kimi]

27. Yes, I've heard that too

and I've never been able to think of seeing BlackHawk Down. I hear those words, and it just hurts.

[Bucky]

8. New rule: you can't say a movie has verisimilitude unless you know what reality is.

verisimilitude. Damn, that's one hell of a word.

[DarkTirade]

19. But you can totally use it to win scrabble games, even if you don't know what it means.

[Captain Hilts]

17. Many aspects of the film ARE realistic. Some are not. Like most military movies. nt

[Radical Activist]

9. The reviews from soldiers on Netflix are horrible.

I checked out the reviews right after it won best picture. I'm amazed at how consistently they said it wasn't best picture material. The worst reviews were from veterans writing about how fake it is.

How did this movie win? And why wasn't Moore's Capitalism even allowed to be considered for nomination? Did conservatives hijack the awards this year?

[krispos42]

12. Alleged veterans, maybe?

Remember on the Intertubez everybody is a former Marine/Green Beret/Navy SEAL!

[Kaleva]

13. True. Besides, the Academy doesn't give out awards for accuracy.

[krispos42]

23. If they did, the award from the 1st Academy Awards would still be waiting...

...on a shelf to be given out!

[MiddleFingerMom]

10. John Wayne's "The Green Berets" was released during and about...

.
... our involvement in Vietnam. It got the same derisive responses
from troops with actual field experience.
.
The BEST was when one of the South Vietnamese soldiers proclaimed,
"We stay here and FIGHT 'til all Cong go home".
.
One of the precursors to an ambush was known to be the fact that, all
of a sudden, you couldn't see a single Vietnamese soldier -- North OR
South.
.
Yet that line got standing O's from the chickenhawk teabaggers of
THAT era.
.

[old mark]

11. SSG James is the kind of soldier who gets those around him killed.

The Colonel was a bit too close for comfort, though....
an asshole ticket puncher on his way to a Star and a great job on some board of directors after retirement.
They get a lot of people killed, too.

mark

[Captain Hilts]

16. And that fact is clear in the movie that his colleagues feel the same way. nt

[Captain Hilts]

14. Not for all. It was shown to EOD folks early on. nt

[fishwax]

25. the EOD folks I know were most critical of it

[semillama]

26. Yeah, my best friend did EOD in Iraq and Afghanistan before he started teaching

and he said it wasn't really accurate at all.

[Captain Hilts]

15. I laughed at "Crimson Tide," but it's still a good movie. nt

[madrchsod]

18. it`s a movie...not a documentary or war footage

some people have a hard time understanding the difference.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

20. I saw it yesterday.

It was decent, but I don't know if I'd say it was Best Picture worthy. I honestly don't know--I think the only other nominee I saw was District 9 and I'd put it on the same level.

I think arguably the most realistic portrayal of the Iraq War was HBO's "Generation Kill" miniseries. Given that it was directed by David Simon, creator of "The Wire" and "Homicide", I'm not surprised.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

21. Anyone else find it ironic...

That all these soldiers are claiming the film's so unrealistic while one EOD guy is suing the producers because it's so obviously based on him and his exploits?

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2010-03-03-hurt-locker-lawsuit_N.htm

[Captain Hilts]

22. Yes. War movies go through this a lot because they mix fact with fiction. No big deal. nt

[NJmaverick]

24. Bill Mayer did a great bit on this sort of political style smear campaign

that is becoming more common during the Oscar season.