I was snowboarding in Mammoth over the weekend and decided to get really high and watch The Hurt Locker after we all got back from the mountain. I don’t smoke weed anymore, it gives me anxiety through the roof, but there was a formula at hand that had to do with being shut inside of a condo and not wanting to move because I was so exhausted that fed an urge. Going into it, I knew absolutely nothing about this movie, other than everyone telling me how great it is…So I have to say this after a stoned screening:

HOLY MOLY. There’s The Bridge On The River Kwai, Apocalypse Now, Dr. Strangelove, and The Hurt Locker as far as I’m concerned. It’s one of the greatest war movies I’ve ever seen, and for sure destined to be THE definitive Iraq War film. It makes Three Kings and all the other ones look like Disturbed-scored army commercials. Jeez was this thing intense! Did anyone pick up on how much surrealism Kathryn Bigelow injected into this story? From the 837 bombs scene with Col. Reed to that shot when Jeremy Renner is sitting in his bunk with his bomb helmet on, this movie was pure surrealism in the ways of Kubrick, yet not pastiche at all. Bigelow directed the shit out of that script!

And how about Jeremy Renner being the most bad assed lunatic good guy since Travis Bickle? It’s like he came out of nowhere to remind everyone how to be a real actor. Every line that came out of his character, Lt. James’, mouth was the most macho, “holy-shit did he really just say that?!” dialogue ever! Did you know his breakout role was playing Jeffrey Dahmer? Of course it was!

Man, and the sniper scene? Are you kidding?! When Renner coughs up chunks of his lung and asks for a juice only to nourish Anthony Mackie first? And the cleaning of Ralph Fiennes blood off the ammo magazine…I started to get a heart murmur! The character of Lt. James had so much dimension (and dementia) that it got to a point where I had absolutely no idea who he was. He was a perfectly ambiguous hero. I’m floored.

One more thing…wasn’t it amazing that Bigelow was brave enough to shoot it in black and white? It was gorgeous! Every shot could live as its own epic still photo. How effective was that in placing us into such a bleak, fight or flight environment? I spent the whole movie attempting to analyze why she made such a astonishing choice in cinematography. Then after watching the entire thing, my wife and I realized that the movie wasn’t in black and white, but the RC cables running from the DVD player into the TV were faulty. Wow. Though fomented by stoned disorientation, I’ll say this: Watching The Hurt Locker in black and white was a bizarre, yet seriously profound movie experience that I doubt I’ll ever discover again. The wife and I have to watch it in color (and not stoned) and see if it’s better than in B&W…I’m thinking not.

- Cornbluth