The Hurt Locker - Director Present

The Hurt Locker

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Appearing in Person
With Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty
US 2008, 35mm, color, 131 min.

The Hurt Locker offers a sandblasted portrait of an overworked and under fire U.S. Army Bomb Disposal unit in Iraq. Like her hypoxic submarine thriller K-19, Bigelow’s latest film focuses more on the mercurial dynamics of the beleaguered male group than any larger geopolitics. A decidedly unconventional war film for an infamously unconventional conflict, The Hurt Locker avoids battle scenes to instead follow the taut tripwire strung across seven agonizingly suspenseful sequences of the unit at work defusing explosives devices. A riveting character study centered around the team’s newest member, a frighteningly carefree adrenaline junkie, The Hurt Locker is a fascinating return to Bigelow’s frequent theme of moral and ethical identities reinvented by extreme danger.

Many reviews consider The Hurt Locker by far the most effective film yet on The Iraq War — and it doesn’t even feel all that specific to the Iraq war. Its insights and reach extend far beyond what’s happened there over the past several years.

Our group is eligible for $8 advanced tickets which is not only a discount, but enables us to avoid the long line hoping to get in. Your RSVP must include payment, either by paypal or by MIGS (member in good standing :).

As this is a week night and Director's Present can go for awhile following the screening, we'll meetup beforehand at the Grafton Street Pub, on Mass Ave near the HFA. Hopefully, the weather will enable us to meet outside for cocktails, lobster tails, and tall tails. As we'll go to the HFA at 6:30, come to the Pub whenever you can, starting at 5:15.

Please include in your RSVP whether I should make a reservation for you at Grafton Street. Join us there, even if you'll be there after 6:00.

If you cannot make it to the Pub, your name will be on a list at the door at the HFA. Just check in and look for our group towards the back of the theater.

See you at the movies,

John