Disclaimer: I only watched ~5 minutes of the Oscar's last night.
The fact that The Hurt Locker beat out Avatar for Best Picture has been taken as some kind of feminist triumph by some, but I think Nile Gardiner , in the UK Telegraph, gets it right:
Hurt Locker vanquishes Avatar: patriotism triumphs over anti-Americanism at the Oscars
Avatar cost up to $400 million to produce and market. In contrast, The Hurt Locker had a budget of just $11 million. Avatar is in essence a hugely expensive political statement against America’s leadership of the world, and the US-led war in Iraq. The Hurt Locker is not an overtly political movie, but it pays tribute to the tremendous bravery and sacrifice of American troops fighting in Iraq, at a time when Hollywood has produced a slew of anti-war movies.
The Hurt Locker is a brave film that goes against the conventional wisdom in an overwhelmingly left-wing film-making community, and which struck a powerful chord with both critics and the American public. The Hurt Locker was the clear underdog in this year’s Oscar contest, and its stunning win over a far larger adversary was a triumph for an independent movie that celebrates the heroism and dedication of American troops on the battlefield in the face of a brutal enemy.
More telling is the reaction to Kathryn Bigelow's comments in which she dedicated the Oscar "to the women and men who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan." The applause from the audience is the most powerful sign that "the times they are a'changin'".
The American military has been consistently noted as the most respected institution in America. This was true even during those times when a majority of Americans had become disillusioned with the course of the Iraq War and were ready to give up. The applause suggest that some in Hollywood are joining in that respect.
Jules Crittenden offers a slightly different view:
It isn’t the worst flick in the world. In fact, once I got past the inaccuracies and accepted it as another case of Hollywood going to war, where the hero has to be a PTSD-addled menace, I enjoyed it. There was a lot of edge of your seat intensity and grit and dirt that worked. For all the errors, there were some realities in it, and some good performances. I liked Anthony Mackie’s Sgt. Sanborn a lot. He delivered a highly credible performance that reminded me a lot of some people I knew in combat … steady, reliable people who had your back, who had no time or tolerance for nonsense that would get you or them or anyone else killed. Who were capable of bravery that did not involve macho demonstrations.
And as mentioned before, I appreciate the fact that The Hurt Locker represents an evolution. Screenwriter Mark Boal of In the Valley of Elah fame has moved forward from presenting war-damaged vets as dangerous killers to almost accepting war-damaged killers as a necessary evil.
I suspect what we’re seeing out of Hollywood is a little Iraq War redemption, now that the job is largely done, and under new management. It’s OK to make a show of respect, in a passive way, saluting soldiers who defuse the enemy’s bombs, even showing them hunting the enemy down, as long as the point is made that war will make you crazy.
But like I said, the post-9/11 war flick I’m waiting to see hasn’t been made yet: In the Valley of the Ass-Kick Locker.
The errors in The Hurt Locker are legion. Even without any particular knowledge of Military procedures or the Iraqi ROE, I couldn't miss the insanity of a Soldier running around an Iraqi city at night wearing a hoodie, or his disregard for the safety of his subordinates. (Even if he were personally suicidally reckless, I suspect he would have followed the rules and not exposed his teammates to unnecessary risks.) All that being said, I recognized the errors as being in service to a ripping good story which kept me on the edge of my seat and marveling at the heroism of the characters, heroism that I appreciate is an everyday occurrence, if not quite so cinematically dramatized, in Iraq and Afghanistan.
[In respect to the common place heroism of our men and women in theater, I plan on posting a review of Iraq War Veteran Luke Larson's new novel, Senator's Son in the next little bit. Interestingly, errors there related to the Psychological/Psychiatric treatment of PTSD caught my attention in ways which errors in The Hurt Locker undoubtedly annoyed some Soldiers. The errors in Senator's Son in no way detract from a powerful story; I would like to think my Military readers would agree that the errors in The Hurt Locker also do not detract from the deeper truths revealed.]
What has changed in Hollywood as they evolve in their response to the current War we are fighting against Islamic extremism is noteworthy. Certainly the Sean Penn's in Hollywood have only evolved to the point where they understand that their open and ignorant slurs on our Military now have the potential to cut into their incomes; their silence is welcome nonetheless. However, I suspect that for the majority of Hollywood liberals, for whom their liberalism is little more than attitude and group solidarity, there may be a bit more of an evolution going on. While George W. Bush was President it was easy for such people to remain cloistered in their New York Times/Washington Post delineated ignorance. Hatred of GWB was enough to obviate any need to actually consider what was occurring in the larger world, filled rather than with "friends we haven't met yet" but actual enemies for whom rational debate is unavailing. As long as GWB was around supplying a focus for one's fears and hatreds, the actual political philosophy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Khalid Sheik Mohammed and their ilk could be kept out of conscious awareness. Now that Barack Obama has attempted to run a foreign policy based on multicultural, liberal standards, and that foreign policy has been shown to be an evolving disaster, glimmers of reality may be insinuating themselves into the minds of our Hollywood doyens.
Kathryn Bigelow has said that she meant her movie to be yet another (highly kinetic) meditation on the cruelty and the addiction of war, yet within her movie, her admiration for the basic morality and incredible courage of our Military men and women comes through. Whatever the errors in The Hurt Locker, and whatever the exaggerations and the apparent pathology of its characters, there is never any doubt in The Hurt Locker about who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. That is more than merely an evolution; it is a revolution.
Recent Comments