Chances are you’ve heard a bit of hype about The Hurt Locker by now. Time Magazine said it’s a “near perfect movie”. The New York Times calls it “visceral visual poetry”. Rolling Stone thinks that Mark Boal, the writer, “nails every telling detail”. Access Hollywood states that this film is “the year’s first front-runner for Best Picture and Best Director!” With this amount of hype, it’s fairly certain that The Hurt Locker will be nominated for multiple Academy Awards this year. It is this column’s opinion that the rumors of this film’s exceptionalism “have been greatly exaggerated”. Make no mistake, this film is action-packed and taut. If viewed as simply an action film, a case could be made for a successful endeavor. The problem is this film tries to transcend beyond the action-flick label into a meaningful commentary on war and the horrors contained within. And here is where it fails.

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