For all the times I meant to see it earlier (there was a lot of hype for
Les Démineurs as it is called in France) I didn't see
The Hurt Locker until the day after the Academy dished out to it 6 (count 'em) Oscars. Hmm. Well, as glad as I am that the top award didn't go to
Avatar, I certainly don't feel
The Hurt Locker deserved it either. For me,
Lebanon was a much more interesting and provocative essay on the chaos of war. I just imagine that the Academy voted so much for it as it was a sleeper within the US and the Academy is typically anti-Iraq War.
The film itself (quite thankfully) was not overtly anti-war. It showed most soldiers in a respectful way, most honoring both their duty and their compassion to other people even when they are potential insurgents.
But the film did feel long and fairly aimless, to me this was an aspect of the story it was telling but this was not something that would make it a crowd pleaser. I absolutely loved Kathryn Bigelow's
Strange Days from 1995 and imagined quite a different film here.
Chacun son goût.
