After initially not wanting to see this film (the trailer bored me) I saw it post-Oscars. And it was better than I thought it'd be.
It explores feelings of hopelessness and longevity in war situations, similarly to Jarhead, but shows them not through the central character, but the situations they're put in. For example they get stranded in the middle of the desert for about a day waiting for a pick up. After they've killed some snipers firing on them they have to wait and stare at their position just in case there's someone else they haven't shot yet. They wait like that, in the same positions for hours on end.
The main character is an abrasive redneck named Sergeant James who comes into the story about 10 minutes in as the new bomb disposal technician. Now I'd assume the guy is supposed to be abrasive and a bit of a tool otherwise Bigelow massively misjudged the character. However there are times when his cocky attitude is more of a help than a hindrance, and this only seems to be in war-time situations where he risks his own neck to save everyone, but when he's play fighting with his army buddies and takes it too far, he ends up with a knife against his throat. This exemplifies the idea that soldiers are a different breed of human, who can't function in society, something which is touched upon when he returns home and does the shopping, finding it difficult to decide which cereal to choose.
Another point worth mentioning, is that the whole scene that takes place in James' room where they all drink and punch each other, seemed completely stupid and just made me like all the characters less. I sort of understand that the idea was to make them the jocks of the working world, but it just made them seem overly-violent for no reason.
Other than that, I did really quite enjoy the film, despite my reservations. There were some harrowing moments, and these were delicately balanced by uplifting ones. The film ends on a high but questionably immoral note, as James makes the decision to do what he loves.
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