Last Friday I watched The Hurt Locker.

This a war movie, perhaps the truest war movie I've seen. I'm not a particularly big fan of the genre; I recognize the inherent greatness of films like Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Saving Private Ryan, etc. but don't run to the theater everytime something advertises machine guns and fatigues. But this is beside the point, because Hurt Locker doesn't really fit within the war movie genre's guidelines. The film lacks stylized violence, a crafted plot rife with military intrigue, protagonists' backstories, and heartstring tugging music.

Instead, the camera follows a three man Army unit charged with defusing IED's in the early stages of the Iraq War, around 2004 I believe. The film is pretty bare bones, instead of a lengthy set-up of the military situation or tearful send-off of our heroes, the film starts with action right away. The three man team is comprised of a frightened newbie, a safety-oriented commander, and a brass balled but reckless bomb specialist defuser. Although there are some base scenes in between, the movie really consists of bomb defusing vignettes- each call a tension filled walk into the kill zone for the specialist while the other two frantically wave their machine guns at potential suspects and bark orders.

The bomb scenes feel realistic, a feeling I have no way to verify although the screenplay was written by a reporter embedded with this sort of team in Iraq. At the very least, I can say that it's well done. The setting looks like images I've seen of Baghdad (the film was shot nearby in Jordan). The fear and adrenaline that must be involved in such endeavors is palpable for viewers. Best of all, in spite of all the chaos, the film stays focused. I always felt like I knew where each of our three protagonists were, what potential insurgents were doing, how long until the bomb detonated.

An attempt is made at character development, mostly attempts to understand the bomb-defusing specialist's addiction to war. There are a couple brilliant instances of this, like the scene where he calms his panicked subordinate in the midst of a gunfight. And there is a powerful moment towards the end of the film- when it cuts quickly away from Iraq and back to civilian life- and our hero is dumbfounded trying to choose a box of cereal in a mega-grocery. There are few less succesful moments of character development, ones that feel cheesy- but maybe realism is cheesy.

This is a well-made film, although perhaps not one that's enjoyable to watch. Certainly it's too long and too tense. As my movie watching companion astutely noted, sometimes in war films when the action goes a little too long our threshold for anxiety is overrun and we're forced to emotionally separate from the action, to conclude that this is only a movie. The genre war movies, the stylized ones, subvert this emotional tendency with shorter action sequences and more character development. The Hurt Locker spares us these movie tricks, perhaps at its own expense.

Still if you have often found yourself wondering what American soldiers sent to Iraq really experience, this film may be the first piece of media to really convey a bit of that. Just don't expect it to be enjoyable.