'The Hurt Locker' releasing on 30th April.
The Hurt Locker is a war film about a United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team during the Iraq War. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and the screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a US bomb squad in Iraq. It stars Jeremy Renner,
Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty as members of the EOD unit and follows their tour of duty as they contend with defusing bombs, the threat of insurgency, and the tension that develops among them.
The film was shot in Jordan within miles of the Iraqi border because Bigelow wanted to bring greater authenticity to the film. This benefited filming by supplying many Iraq refugees for extras and the unmistakable heat of the Middle East. The location also put a strain on the actors and crew, creating a "palpable tension". The set had few of the amenities of a traditional Hollywood set and the crew had to deal with being shot at multiple times.
It was released theatrically in Italy during 2008 when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival. After being shown at the Toronto International Film Festival it was picked up for distribution in the United States by Summit Entertainment. The film was released in the United States on June 26, 2009 but received a more
widespread theatrical release on July 24, 2009. Because the 2008 film was not originally released in the U.S. (at least in an Oscar-qualifying run in Los Angeles) until 2009, it was eligible to be judged in the 82nd Academy Awards held in 2010.
The Hurt Locker earned numerous awards and honors from critics' organizations, festivals and groups. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won six including Best Picture (making The Hurt Locker the lowest-grossing film to win the award) and Best Director for Bigelow (the first woman to win this award).
The film also won six BAFTA Awards for Best Film, Direction, Original Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography and Sound.
The Hurt Locker opens with a quotation from War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, a best-selling 2002 book by New York Times war correspondent and journalist Chris Hedges: "The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug.
During the early stages of the post-invasion period in Iraq in 2004,[4][5] Sergeant First Class William James, a battle-tested veteran, becomes the team leader of a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit, replacing Staff Sergeant Thompson, who was killed by a radio-controlled 155 mm improvised explosive device (IED) in Baghdad. He joins Sergeant J.T. Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge, whose jobs are to communicate with their team leader via radio inside his bombsuit, and provide him with rifle cover while he examines IEDs. During their missions of disarming IEDs and engaging insurgents together, James's unorthodox methods lead Sanborn and Eldridge to consider him reckless. Tensions mount between James and the other two team members. During a raid on a warehouse, James discovers the dead body of a young boy who has been surgically implanted with an unexploded bomb. James believes it to be "Beckham", a young Iraqi merchant he had previously befriended.
Later, James orders his team to pursue three insurgents responsible for a recent explosion. Sanborn protests that the task should be left to an infantry platoon, but James overrules him. During the operation, Eldridge is accidentally shot in the leg. The next morning, James is approached by Beckham. The young boy tries to converse with James, who walks by without saying a word. Being airlifted for surgery, Eldridge angrily blames James for his injury.
After failing in a mission to remove and disarm a time-bomb strapped to an Iraqi civilian's chest, Sanborn becomes emotional and confesses to James that he can no longer cope with the pressure of being in EOD, and he looks forward to finally leaving Iraq and starting a family. James returns home to his wife and child and is shown quietly performing the routine tasks of suburban civilian life. One night James confesses to his
infant son that there is only one thing that he knows he loves. He is next seen in Afghanistan, ready to serve another 365 days as an EOD team member with another company.
This film is being released by 'Ratna Celluloids' banner in andhrapradesh through ''Multidimensional Entertainments Pvt Ltd' on 30th April 2010 in English only. [More]