The Cinematic Language of The Hurt Locker

Abstract

This chapter begins with an epigraph, “What can you do with the camera that makes you feel like you're a participant?”, which was taken from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges' book War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning. It points out that the epigraph was used in the opening of The Hurt Locker and considered one of the film's central thematic motifs and metaphor. It also looks at The Hurt Locker's very particular cinematic style that is described as both jagged and frenetic. The chapter discusses how The Hurt Locker was filmed in Jordan, a country which borders Iraq to the west and has a very similar architecture to Baghdad where the film is primarily set. It analyzes the cinematic language and narrative choices that lead towards understanding the character of William James as a masculine hero and a decisive man of action.