The Oscar Goes to Our Troops--Conservatives Values Upheld On Hollywood's Big Night

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I hadn't even considered seeing this movie, but this thread has made me interested, so now I'm getting it from Netflix. Good advertising, quade.

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Believe it or not, JR is the one that turned me on to it. Seriously. He said it was good, I checked it out and decided to see it even before it was nominated. Although, truth be told, I didn't see it until maybe the week before the nominations came out a couple of months ago.

Great 1st act.
Great 2nd act.

I won't say any more in the clear for people to read because it's something that really shouldn't be spoiled. I still disagree with FoxNews though.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

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I watched it last night. Great movie. And I'm sorry, quade, but I have to agree with Fox that the movie takes no position on the war. I can see how you might take that opening statement (and therefore the theme of the film) to be anti-war, but I didn't take it that way. To me, it just seemed to be a study on how some people become addicted to the rush of battle. (Perhaps an anti-addiction statement, although they really didn't focus on it in a negative light.)

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The Oscar Goes to Our Troops--Conservatives Values Upheld On Hollywood's Big Night
By James P. Pinkerton - FOXNews.com

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As I wrote about the movie, here in the Fox Forum on February 2: "Locker” takes absolutely no position on the war.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/03/08/james-p-pinkerton-hurt-locker-kathryn-bigelow-oscar-iraq-honor-military/

Are you fuckin' kidding me? It absolutely takes a position on the war. The very first thing you see in the film is a statement, a single card, white on black statement that is clearly anti-war. That is the thesis for the entire film. It's what motivates the main character and explains his actions.

WTF?

I have to agree with the majority in this thread, that The Hurt Locker doesn't really take a stand whether it's pro, or anti-war. I took from it a, "War is Hell," message, just like Platoon, or Apocalypse Now.

It doesn't have to take a stand on the political issues surrounding the war to make it a good movie. There's absolutely no politics in it, which is kind of what ruined The Men Who Stare at Goats for me. The portrayal of James is an interesting view on certain types of soldiers. We've already seen enough movies about the innocent mind ruined by war, but not enough about the soldiers that survive and thrive on that environment.

Think of the team of Deltas and their portrayal in Black Hawk Down. Even in the heat of it, their calm, collected manner sets them apart from the other Rangers.

What I really think The Hurt Locker was aiming at, is that for some people, going to war is a feeling only the few who have gone can understand, and for a few, it's a rush. Not just an adrenaline rush, but a whole wide range of emotions. I'm not saying that James is a character who has fun with war, but merely a soldier addicted to the entire rush of emotions.

Now I haven't been to war, so I really don't have much to back this up, but while I was in SERE school out in San Diego, I experienced a whole range of emotions that really made the whole experience something out of this world, and I'm sure those who have been to SERE as well can back me up. It was fun, but it was hell. It was tiring, yet exhilarating. Terrifying, yet interesting. A great experience overall, even though it sucked, and to a certain extent, enjoyable. In the heat of our evasion I felt a rush like nothing else in this world, and I think it's that rush that this movie tries to convey. One I think it does very well.

I didn't even know about The Hurt Locker until I saw it on Comcast on-demand. The whole movie managed to recreate a lot of those same emotions I experienced in SERE, and by the end of it, I was truly stunned I had not heard about it before. I definitely think it deserved all 6 Oscars it received, and trumped the over-hyped eye candy Pandora was.

Skydiving: You either learn from other's mistakes, or they'll learn from yours.