Hurt Locker wins best picture

MikeYikes122

Master Don Juan
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Why is it that, when someone makes something that is great, people can't wait to log onto the Internet and find ways to disparage it?

Luthor Rex said:
The Matrix still has you.
:crackup: "The Matrix" has me because I liked The Hurt Locker? Thanks for reminding me why I don't post on this message board anymore.

Did you notice that, with the exception of maybe the Iraqi bomb experts, all the critics who you quoted are from leftist organizations or publications that have an anti-war stance? To figure this out, all you had to was click on their Wikipedia entries. Also, you didn't even copy that Army of Dude guy's full quote. What he said was "the way the team goes about their missions is completely absurd," though he went on to call the film "the best Iraq movie to date."

And I happen to agree with his take. Sure, their missions were overly dramatic and skewed by Hollywood, but that doesn't take away from the overall achievement of The Hurt Locker. Hollywood drama aside, the movie completely nailed the unique challenges that the war presents, both overseas and stateside.

In Afghanistan and Iraq, the kind of war that is being fought is extremely unique. The threat of danger isn't always apparent or obviously imminent. Enemies blend in with civilians, and the smallest piles of junk or scrap metal can be gigantic improvised explosive devices. Danger could literally be waiting around any corner. No other movie to date has done such a good job of capturing this sentiment. That's why critics and the majority of Iraq/Afghanistan veterans praised it so much.

The movie also does a good job of illustrating the unique challenges that the veterans of this generation face when they return home. Many of them come back stateside and can't find a way to reacclimate to real life. So they fight horrible bouts with PTSD that can last a lifetime, or they decide that they have to return to the war to re-feel a sense of normalcy - like the main character in the movie did. That's another reason this movie resonated so viscerally with Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans - the regular ones, not those who were trying to get themselves and their organizations quoted in Wikipedia articles. I have an independent movie theater down the street from my apartment and was lucky enough to see this movie in the theaters. Grown men were crying. It was a very emotional scene. A few of the Iraq vets who I saw it with were speechless when it was over.

Like I said, I will never understand my generation's need to criticize things that draw acclaim or are universally considered great. We're a bunch of cynics who are itching to find faults in everything.
 
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