Interpreting The Politics of The Hurt Locker

Abstract

This chapter explores how the The Hurt Locker and other American films about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan marginalises, distorts and erases the Iraqi and Afghanistani experiences of the war. It analyzes The Hurt Locker as a film that portrays almost every Iraqi citizen, man, woman and child as a threat to the soldiers and are frequently viewed through the rifle sights of the Americans who are at the centre of the film. It also investigates the tortuous logic that The Hurt Locker embraces that is well hidden from the audience in affective acts. This chapter points out how each Iraqi in The Hurt Locker functions only as what they can reveal about the Americans who are at the core of the film. It examines the political perspectives of The Hurt Locker that are subsumed into its narrative and cinematic choices.