Iraq War Movie Tipped For Oscar Success - The Hurt Locker

A powerful new movie about the Iraq war is being tipped for Oscar
glory - despite its tricky subject matter and lack of big name stars.

The Hurt Locker
- which features only tiny cameos from Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pearce -
has won rave reviews from critics, and is now an early contender for a
prize for next year's Academy Awards.

The film follows a US bomb-disposal squad working to diffuse hidden roadside bombs.

It is directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and written by journalist Mark Boal, who spent time embedded with troops in Baghdad.

"It was an eye opening experience to see just how many bombs they would have to disarm on a given day" Boal told Sky News.

"It was really incredible, and hopefully some of that got transferred over into the movie."
With its shaky handheld camera, and little concession to any regular
Hollywood plot, The Hurt Locker has been met with almost universal
acclaim.

It was shot on location in Jordan, and rather than over-egg the
ongoing, obvious political debate, it busies itself concentrating on
the soldiers, who simply want to do the job, and do it well.

Bigelow, who previously directed Point Break, Strange Days, and
K-19: The Widowmaker, says: "These are men who arguably have the most
dangerous job in the world.

"They walk towards what we would all run away from, I think that's pretty interesting

"It's so inherently dramatic and I think our combined interest was
to keep it reportorial, not to embellish it in any way. Just watching
what they do on any given day was incredibly tense."
Films based on the War on Terror have mostly proved a tricky sell
for audiences, who are already bombarded with images on their TV
screens and newspapers.

But The Hurt Locker has performed respectably, if not spectacularly
in the US, where it's on course to make $15m (£9m) during its cinematic
run.

Its writer thinks it's a film everyone can relate to.

"It's more or less ordinary people in a very challenging situation" says Boal.

"They're doing extraordinary things and I think that's part of what makes the movie universal.

"In the sense that it really is in some ways a story of heroism and
the cost of heroism, and survival and the ways people try to survive
difficult situations."