I am a dreamer, a traveler, a student, a teacher, a friend, a stranger, an Asian, a Canadian, a daughter, a woman, a photographer, a model, an immigrant, a citizen, a writer...but these are all just labels, and they wouldn't begin to tell you why I have an infinite love for hole-in-the-wall bars and coffee shops and black & white everything, or why live music of any kind just captivates me, or how Chinese novels move me in a way so deep that I wish every person in the world could understand the language, or why I can never ever hold back a smile watching the sun rise on a different continent.
Traveling is a huge part of my life, as is writing. With a pen and a backpack, I've had some of the most memorable moments of my life at some of the most random corners around the world.
If traveling is how one experiences reality, then writing is how I weave my dreams. It has always been the most natural, intimate, and truest expression of myself. And we all just want to tell our own stories in this lifetime, don't we?
It's like breathing, and as clichéd as that sounds, how can you explain why you need to breathe?
My love affair with film runs long and deep, and is inexplicably intertwined with my respect for the power of language.
In a way, cinema is an entire language of its own, elevating the written words from their pages into a multi-dimension visceral experience. I won't claim that movies are better than books. But a great one can be. And it is always fascinating to watch creative, passionate people attempt to reach greatness.
The world is a playground, life is pushing my swing...and cinema is the wind that caresses my face, breezes through my hair, and lifts me up, higher and higher.
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Sanborn: but you realize that every time you suit up, every time we go out, it's life or death, you roll the dice...and you deal with it, you recognize that, don't you?
James: Yeah yeah, yeah I do know.
[pause]
But I don't know why though. Yeah...*sigh* I don't know why JT, you know why? I am the way?
Sanborn: No, I don't.
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I had the privilege of seeing this film at TIFF 2008, at Ryerson theater at 9am in the morning. Bigelow joked before the start of the film that this is not something that particularly whets most people's appetite at 9 in the morning, but quite the opposite, I found that in my wary, freshly caffeinated brain, the Hurt Locker just burned into it with a clear ferocity that left me forever inked. I loved that movie. It probably stands shoulder to shoulder besides Slumdog Millionaire as my two favorites of the year. Funny if you think about it though - one is about as idealistic and hopeful as a drama can be, and the other is so so real, and realistic, and melancholy. Both however, carry a sort of sweetness that can only be tasted in the aftermath, with a touch of bitterness that enhance the flavor...most tenderly.
The Hurt Locker, the most recent film by Kathryn Bigelow, takes place in Iraq, in the midst of war. A war that is not foreign, or imaginary, or historic, a war that is going on this very second as I'm typing this. In this age of lightening fast transmissions and instantaneous communication, it's interesting to note that a war that costs billions of dollars in tax payer money, thousands in human casualty, and momentous changes in the laws that govern the society we live in, barely touches so many of our lives on a daily basis, visibly, at least.
I remember exactly the day I saw it. September 10, 2008. I stumbled out of bed at some ungodly hour, pulled myself together (sort of), and made my way towards Ryerson theater, large americano in hand. The film opened with a bomb, and a team in the process of trying to disarm it - nothing I haven't seen before in a war film about bombs. I was wary. I waited. And as the minutes passed, I was sucked in, into the world of James, a bomb disposal expert who is so deeply absorbed in the world of bombs and explosions that he barely knows how to function in the human one that he resides in. I was fascinated, by the set up of a bomb squad, which only consists of three members, whose every action is intimately connected to each other's survival. I was mesmerized, by the palpable tension in every shot, the solidarity of each character that brims each frame. There are so much that are unsaid, but everything is so blatantly in plain view.
I won't go through the plot, because although it's interesting and well written, it's not the highlight of the film. The heart of the piece lies in its characters - James(Jeremy Renner), Sanborn (Anthony Mackie), Eldridge (Brian Geraghty), the Colonel (David Morse), each playing his part in this game of war. It is a game, after all, isn't it? Troops are sent in as pawns. Traps are set. Destruction is primed. People try to stop it or die trying. All for what? The overall purpose of winning....what exactly? For each of the guys who plays a role in this game of war, their personal purpose, the only one they can try to control, is just to survive today, until tomorrow comes.
It's easy to like James. He is the hero, saving lives every day. Jeremy Renner plays him with a tenacity that deserves an academy award nomination if not win. We see him being firm to the enemy, not brutal. We see him playing heartily with a DVD selling Iraqi kid. We see his leadership, his quiet dignity in a scene where the squad is trapped in the sand, waiting out the enemy under the hot desert sun. Contrast his actions with that of Eldridge, and we see a man's true color under fire.
In one scene, a Colonel approaches James after he disarms a bomb, high on glee and enthusiasm, asks to shake his hand and the number of bombs that he has disarmed. Upon hearing James' answer he exclaims loudly that James is a "wild man". I remember feeling incredulous when I first watched that scene...like I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Laugh at the terrifying sheer joy that the Colonel takes from watching a man who just went to the brink of death and back, or cry at his oblivious ignorance of the underlying cause of James' "wildness", so to speak. He is not wild. He just doesn't know how to be anything else.
His whole life has succumbed to the ticking of time and the bid and tide of adrenaline and tension that winds it. Those are the rules that James lives by, the hills he run, the waves that he rides. I don't think he thinks of himself as "wild". Wild to me denotes a certain feeling of true freedom, and I think that is a notion as foreign to James as the winter is to the desert. If anything, it's a freedom that can only be translated in the lonesomeness of his self and his profession, which no one seems to be able to touch, even after all the armor has been stripped away.
In one particular moment, which I almost missed in the first viewing and only caught the second time around, James watches his son in play, and wonders how he loves so many things so easily. "By the time you get to my age," He said, "maybe it is only one or two things." James pauses. "For me I think it's one."
The Hurt Locker is a film about war, but it really is a film about the humanity in war, and the struggle between the two. We see a man who loves his country being entrenched so deeply into his role as part of the fabric of war that he no longer knows how to exists outside of it. He is a good man. A strong man. A brave man. But he is also just a shell of a man. A product of the system he serves. His survival depends as much on his ability to disarm the bombs as in their mere existence. What happens when the war ends? When he has to return home to face his child and wife, permanently? Will he know how to relate to his son the joys and sorrows of his life? Will he learn to love more than one thing in his life...again? I hope so.
When I first heard the name "The Hurt Locker", it immediately conjured up images of a world of pain, and being trapped within. Having now seen the film, I realize that it's a place locked not from the outside, but from within - a cocoon. We all have our own hurt locker...you know, that dark, comfortable place that you go to, that space you sink into, a secret garden of your pain and sorrow and regret and guilt, growing into a forest too dense for anyone else to forge into. It is a cocoon of pain. But it's also a familiar pain - you know how it feels, how it moves, how it molds, and it is yours, and no one else's. And when the world can explode at any moment, being inside the vortex, inside the hurt locker, is maybe not so bad.
You are the sleeping beauty, and outside is just the functional façade that faces this cold, cold world.
Inside, it's warm.
And Alone.
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You can contact me via:
My blog,etherielmusings.
Or on Twitter.
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Finally :) and without a doubt worth the wait. Thank you Grace. You're "About Me" is the best one I've read yet, you're video review is excellent and so is your printed review.
Wonderful!
Grace!
Beautiful! I was thinking the same thing (as Wael) that your About Me is the best of them all.
Now, I want to go read your blog some more.
Omer M
A lovely review, sure to enhance my appreciation of this excellent film when next I see it. Thanks for writing it. And thanks to Roger for providing a place for these voices to be heard.
Hey Grace -
How did you read the final shot? I'm wondering specifically about the music.
Omer M
You go, Fourth Sister. You were right about your eyes, too. They're scary.
I finally saw "The Hurt Locker" last week and pretty much agree. It kept Catt awake through the night, too.
I think it's made very clear that when all is said and done he has one love ..and he returns to it..and human nature being what it is it will never be over and there will never be a lack of it..or people like him who will show up for it.
Thanks guys!
Omer, I thought the ending was hopeful. The music, along with the shot and the caption, was surprisingly invigorating. I'm glad it didn't take the gloomy/mopey way out, which would make it a cliche. It is a much more useful message - life is not perfect, but you gotta deal with the hand that you got and make the best of it.
A great great review of a great great film. I just got to see this movie at a second run movie theater last night, and it has also become my favorite film of the year. Just like your review, the movie is as close to perfection as any movie I'm likely to see this year. And then your video review is even better than your written review! So glad that you picked this movie to review on Ebert's webpage!
Unfortunately, the person I went with didn't like the movie as much as I did, though her problem with it was the same thing that I thought made it such a great film: it didn't take sides on the Iraq War (she is very much against the war). In fact, I would argue that the war is a backdrop to the story in much the same way that the Civil War was the backdrop to the story in Gone With the Wind. Its only purpose is to create a canvas on which these characters can act. Characters drive this movie, and James is one of the most interesting and fascinating characters that I've seen in the theater this year.
Thank you for so eloquently getting to the heart of this movie. I might just show it to the person whom I saw this movie with, not in the hope that she will change her mind about the film, but in the hope that she will give the film a second chance.
Grace that statment about all of us having a 'hurt locker' really sticks with me, that comfort we have in our dark personal corners. I appreciate the film even more, thank you.
YEAH TORONTO!!! GO GRACE.
My goodness, Grace..you're one of a very rare breed of Asian women I've come across who can appreciate a truly good film for its merit and essence regardless of its contents...and you've articulated on this film much deeper than everyone I've discussed about it. Wish there are more women film connoisseurs like you here in LA. At least then there's still something to talk even if the date doesn't go so well!
BTW, I also agree with you on what you've said about Chinese novels, but too bad not many have been well adapted in films...at least in my opinion. Many of the ones I've seen are either too bourgeois, or made into Chinese TV dramas that are just too bland for my taste.
Grace:
Overall, I think your review of the 'Hurt Locker" was on target. Literary Dreamer makes a particularly compelling point:The ( pointless ) conflict in Iraq is essentially a back-drop to the impact the constant threat of death or maiming...or having to kill...has upon combatants.
James ( whom Kenner plays such understated intensity -and Oscar worthy nuance ) is not at all unusual as a modern warrior.
You note that he seems a "shell" of a man. This is not particular to James, though he is placed in juxtaposition to two other soldiers who seem to have retained their humanity and survival instincts. This is a rather dubious, and theatrically contrived, contrast in the world of the American warrior code . Unless - as in Vietnam - there is a complete break-down of military discipline, a swaggewring machismo is the usual demeanor of the front line soldier. This is what fills the "shell", and compells men to return repeatedly for trours of duty in war zones.
It is the result of the military imperative that recruits must be broken, their unique personalities and ethics eradicated, and their spirits subverted to the interests of immediate and unquestioning obedience. It's not unlike the dehumanization process of the Nazi concentration camps...down to the shaving of the head and the strict regulations regarding uniformity of dress and action that rob the recruit of any residue of individuality.
The operant conditioning inflicted upon men during basic training, and which the institutional culture into which they are thrust, reinforces, is the mandate: The fighting man give up the Self in the interests of a greater cause, preserve the integrity of the Service, and respect, above all, the sanctity of the chain of command.
The actions of the Colonel to which Grace refers are not in the least unusual. He is not speaking to James, probably doesn't even see the man before him. James is an example of the self-abnegation that is cherished in the American military, and he is making this point , in a bogus "mano-a-mano" way with James, to other troopers. James is so damned perfect as a disposable enlisted man, that he is given the unique privilege of ostensibly impressing...and forming a brief warrior bond ...with a field grade officer. James, for all his apparent modesty and indifference, basks in this praise. Nn civilian superior, no matter the extent of the praise, couild ever, with such few words and ostensible admiration, give James this degree of validation of his worth. A DIVISIONAL COMMANDER just noticed - simply noticed - James's warrior ethic. The invitation of death, for this meager payment, was worth extending..
Indeed, nothing in civilian life can approach - not the adrenaline rush - but the commaderie, the opportunity for glory, the inarguably manly tasking, and the unique skills and "grunt" vernacular - which is exclutionary, strictly the purvue of warriors - offered by assuming the role of warrior. It's always been so. From the Vikings to the Celts to the romans and Greeks...to the present "boots on the ground"...the world becomes differentiated into those with corage, and those who choose to avoid danger...the disgaced, the shameful.
War, then , as noted by several military authors, becomes an addiction. And as with all addictions,one ultimately pays the piper. But there will always be those seeking to climb to the top, the pinnicle of warrior status...to become a SEAL, or Ranger, or, most desirable of all of all, a member the ultra-secret, supreme warrior caste, the Delta operative...so skilled at maintaining his equanimity and situational awareness in the chaos of war, so adept at killing - a modern ninja - that he has transcended being a mere soldier, and is an "operator". But glory cannot be acheived withoutthe proper venue...war. So men go to war, return home to what seems a dreary and mundane existence...and go back to the frontline of battle, seeking their glory.
I don't quite agree that James was spiritually "empty"...his reaction tothe death of the young DVD saleman, his concern for his comrades, even his tragic but unfulfilling love for his family...this is the price of glory: The abdication of the joyous for the laurel leaves. James is clearly tortured by his addiction...but it will be hard for him to shake it. Like many vets, he cannot leave the battlefield behind, because for all it's horror, there is no comparable venue in civilian life in which one can demonstasrte manly courage and thereby garner glory.
Skyraider, Col., USAF (ret.)
Now I really have to see this. Thanks, Grace. Btw, Happy Chinese New Year! This also applies to everyone (captains and shipmates alike). Hahahahaha!
Sorry...I realize that I went on a bit too long - but, obviously, the movie has personal signifigance for me ( after I saw it, my wife told me I wasn't the same for several days...but withdrawn, somewhere else. I was, in fact, back in Vietnam, yet here...straddling the two worlds, uncertain as to
which was more satisfying...and real)
I'd just like to add, the 'Hurt Locker" ranks with the best movies made about the impact of war on men. While most war films of the 40's through the 60's celebrated war, two which didn't are first and second on the list:
The Caine Mutiny (1954)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Gallipoli (1981)
The Thin Red Line (1998 remake)
Black Hawk Down (2001)
We were Soldiers Once (2002)
Breaker Morant and Patton would receive honorable mentions.
Apocalypse Now and Saving Private Ryan are a waste of time.
Nick, thanks for your appreciation of my thoughts. I find it interesting, though, that you take note of my "breed" in relating my ability to excel within it, and despite it, in order to appreciate this film.
I also take note that you appear to be of asian background yourself.
You know, I gotta admit, Roger Ebert is pretty good at appreciating films too, for a white man.
Skyrider, you make great points about the "military imperatives that recruits must be broken." Do you think that is a necessary in order to maintain a successful military?
There is a glory in being a "warrior," but as it becomes more addictive, I think like any other pursuits of passion, be it artistic, atheletic, or professional, you have no choice but to adapt aspects of your humanity in order to burrow further into the world you have chosen. Does it all come down to free will and the choices we make?
I was underwhelmed by "The Hurt Locker." Technically, it's a well-made film in every respect, from the acting to the photography. The direction is perfect in its building of suspense.
I find it interesting that critics with a literary or humanist bent seem to be fascinated by it because I think this fascination betrays their unfamiliarity with certain circles of everyday life.
The character of Sgt. James is, to me, nothing special. He's a professional soldier and doesn't know anything else. He doesn't know how to relate to his family. He only knows how to function in a war zone. He does his job with supreme competence, without thinking. He is his work.
I work in the IT industry and just about every really good software developer or tech is like James, without the explosives. They can only relate to computers. They have trouble with personal relationships. They feel out of place when they're not talking about work. Their closest relationships are to coworkers. James is a bomb geek. No more, no less.
Am I saying it's good that people are like this? Absolutely not. Am I saying that the chance of violent death is equal to a computer crashing? Don't be absurd. But there are other things that can dehumanize the participants besides war. War is simply the most glamorous of them due to its life and death stakes. With "The Hurt Locker" the critics have fallen for the false glory of war, just like the warriors have.
"The world is a playground, life is pushing my swing...and cinema is the wind that caresses my face, breezes through my hair, and lifts me up, higher and higher."
I think I just puked a little bit.
It was nice to see what you had to say about the movie about going on about how interesting and whimsical your life is. That part was like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Wow parts of this review sound like they were written in Roger's voice! Which is not a bad thing at all; Pauline Kael had her acolytes, too.
Ebert: I was indeed a devotee, but we all have our own voices.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts eloquently with others. Although the movie has not been released in South Korea yet, I watched it last summer in dead zone I can't reveal and was completely captivated by it from the beginning to the end. I found the ending sad at that time because he is ultimately pushed by his second nature. Maybe in official or second viewing, I will be able to find glimmer of hope in that like your and Omer.
And Happy Chinese New Year. We are also having holiday week in South Korea. It's especially troublesome this year because we have heavy snow problem in some area(more than 3 feet!). Fortunately, it's not my town.
Grace,
I have to say that I think you got it wrong in your analysis of the Colonel and his interaction with James (and with Sanborn, for that matter). James repeatedly disobeys army protocol, as well as direct orders from his superior officers, in order to allow him to confront his addiction in the form of yet another bomb to diffcuse - a problem to solve, an adrenaline rush, a challenge to his manhood. Is he competent? Yes, very much so. But the Colonel is not in any way ignorant of where he's coming from. James is dangerous, capricious and willful in his single-minded obsession. He's a danger to the other men in the outfit and the Colonel is ironically mocking him and his cavalier, "wild" indifference to taking reckless chances with other people's lives, not just his own.
I'm writing to you from Zhongshan, Guangdong, China. Displaced American. Xin nian kuai le!
I agree with Neil S. There is something that just flows in Grace's language.
First off I am very impressed by the video review, not only because it was clear, to the point and articulate, but how you looked into the camera then looked away again and again at the same spot out of frame to digest your thoughts. This showed a real presence of conversation between yourself and the viewer that really thrusts your comments forward. ( I know you, Mr. Ebert, also describe your style as conversational though I see Grace as a more personal-analytical commentator.)
I really appreciate you drawing attention to the scene between James and his young son about how the things you love and excel at, dwindle down to just a few as you get older, which actually parallels the conclusion drawn at the end of the film "The Weather Man" starring Nicholas Cage. Both films hit upon the same notions while demonstrating two very different outcomes for their lead characters.
The concept of finding one or two things you are good at and the comfort you describe James feeling inside the hurt locker also gets pushed to the dramatic and existential extremes in the series "Neon Genesis Evangelion" where a fourteen year old boy named Shinji must pilot a giant humanoid machine called an evangelion. The evangelion or Eva shares the similarity between the hurt locker in putting both main characters into dangerous situations at the same time being the one place where they feel secure about their identity and purpose. Unlike "The Hurt Locker" or "The Weather Man," "Evangelion" questions what happens when a person loses that "hurt locker." The consequences of which the series portrays as personal and existential suicide as well as a combination destruction and elevation of humanity.
Thankfully the creator of "Evangelion," Hideaki Anno embarked on a new project to redress that story in four new films, the first of which, "Evangelion 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone" is available now in the US.
Just got to see the movie on a theater a couple of hours ago. An early showing with absolutely nobody in the theater but my wife and I.
For me the most tension filled moment was the very first scene, somehow I didn't recall seeing Guy Pearce's name on the credits so I figured his was only going to be a cameo. Then Ralph Fiennes appeared on the picture and I also didn't recall seeing his name either and well, you know the rest.
The scene in the movie that most told me who James was is when he unexpectedly takes of his uniform, we don't understand why, and then he explains the reason and that makes all the sense in the world, we understand there and then who he is, and it really got a big laugh out of me.
What I liked about your review is how you projected your own life in the movie. Personally I identified with UP IN THE AIR so much more and that is why I will root for it (longshot) in the coming Academy Awards.
Uh.........what? A cocoon on warmth and lonliness? A sleeping beauty? As foreign as winter in the desert?
I get the impression you're trying to evoke something in your review that just doesn't come naturally to you. This review was very amateur and its too bad because you seem to have an interesting insight into the movie.
Don't try so hard to sound like something you're not or to give any of your statements the kind of plastic surgery you're performing; it comes across fake and pretentious. Your ideas and insights are wonderful; your writing skill's are just not there.
All the best
- ps - just because a desert doesn't have snow doesn't mean it doesn't have winter......fyi
Ebert: Grace has splendid writing skills. She must have. Another comment in this thread compared them to mine.
Rudy demonstrates irony wonderfully with this superbly proofed sentence -
"your writing skill's are just not there"
Ebert: "Grace has splendid writing skills. She must have. Another comment in this thread compared them to mine."
Hmmmm quite an honor.
True, or well intentioned, or well intentioned truth?
Literary Dreamer said: "..it didn't take sides on the Iraq War..In fact, I would argue that the war is a backdrop to the story..Its only purpose is to create a canvas on which these characters can act."
Silence, a close cousin of synecdoche, is also a statement, one which can most pithily reach the very marrow of the utterer's being.
Indian Idiot (H.W.)
Two things.
Why do I feel like I am the only person alive who does not appreciate K Bigelow's films as much as Grace? I hear the hype and come home after the viewing dumbfounded.
Her directing style is so heavy handed. Obvious. Technically, she's above average. Her films are watchable but not Oscar worthy. How did I not feel any tension watching The Hurt Locker?? Am I dead?
Unfortunately, I have to agree with rudy in his assesment. He might have screwed up some syntax or some other grrrmatikal detail but his observations are true. Sorry to say but Grace's writing reminds me of bigelow's direction. Take that any way you want. At least she puts something down on paper. That's the most important part.
Btw, before you answer my question of mortality please know I love Roger's ramblings and writings and have commented on his skills before.
Ebert: I think Grace's writing is as good as Bigelow's direction. For that matter, I think Wang's writing is as good as Kathryn's direction.
Hmmm...in retrospect,my previous comment reads very harsh and the message was poorly worded (let he who is without sin cast the first...web post?). I would have liked it to come across more as constructive critisicm as opposed to cynicism.
There are certainly segments in the review that across as 'reaching' or pretentious but like I said previously, the insights are wonderful and they are almost to the level of what I come to expect from Ebert himself. I hold Ebert's reviews, insights, and writing to an extremely high regard (you, sir, are the only person who's recommendations I trust blindly), and so if Grace is his correspondant, I have unnaturally high expectations.
By saying your writing skills are just not there, I meant to imply that they could be (without any hint or clue of the implication itself; subtlety at its finest). In any case, I'm sorry for coming across so negative. My intention was to encourage, not to discourage.
In any case, fantastic movie. Here's hoping it succeeds at the oscars if only to give Jeremy Renner a chance to say something clever for his speech.
All the best
- ps - I still think deserts have winters....not budging on that one...
CRITIC, n. A person who boasts himself hard to please because nobody tries to please him.
I lived 5 years in one kind of desert, 10 years in another, and so far, 2 years in yet another. Anyone who can't imagine a desert where winter seems indiscernible compared to winter in the northeast must have few people willing to please him indeed.
To Literary Dreamer -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIqw8OZ6SGE&feature=SeriesPlayList&p=6A7072A7035CDD16
Note the dedication.
I haven't yet watched "The Hurt Locker" and I think I'll wait until after the Oscar hullaballoo is over before I do. In the meantime, many congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow, it would appear she is on the path to achieving the seemingly impossible. Good for her and long may her success continue.
Indian Idiot (H.W.)
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Grace Wang is my favorite because she gives us gems like this qoute from Our far-flung correspondents above,
" I found that in my wary, freshly caffeinated brain, the Hurt Locker just burned into it with a clear ferocity that left me forever inked."