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War Is A Drug

The Hurt Locker (2009) movie posterMy rating for The Hurt Locker: 10 / 10
Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow
Cast: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes

The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug.

– Chris Hedges

The Hurt Locker begins with this ‘powerful’ quote from war correspondent Chris Hedges. One could be forgiven for anticipating that the film to follow will be a glorification of war with the kind of slow-motion footage of army soldiers that Michael Bay has championed. Indeed, movie critics have even come up with a cute little (and often overused/misused) term for it – ‘war porn’.

And yet, that is precisely the sort of depiction that the movie stays away from. It isn’t an intense battle movie, like Black Hawk Down was, nor does it have any iconic dialogue. What The Hurt Locker is is a snapshot of what life is for military personnel who aren’t necessarily fighting on the frontline (bomb squad, in this case), and yet face mortal peril each day of their job.

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Watch the trailer for The Hurt Locker

The movie deals with the mind games involved with trying to make split second decisions on whether the guy with a cellphone is trying to detonate a bomb or how your team might be picked off by snipers in the middle of a desert. And how diffusing bombs in real life isn’t about nervously deciding to “cut the red wire or the green wire” while a clock ticks down “ten seconds to detonation”.

Yes, the guy _is_ trying to outrun a bomb explosion, but not quite the way it was done in '2012'.

What really makes the movie stand out is how understated the performances are. Jeremy Renner’s performance as the maverick head of the bomb diffusal team (Staff Sergeant William James) who acts in ways others consider reckless, and yet still portraying the character as a human being who is just trying to get the job done, is stellar. The plot is very much character-driven, and it works because the characters are ones you can totally believe in. (You might remember Jeremy Renner as Sergeant Doyle from 28 Weeks Later. BTW, who else finds Rose Byrne from that movie extremely cute?)

This picture has nothing to do with Rose Byrne. Just FYI.

Any film these days suffers from low self-esteem unless they make a comment about rampant commercialism in our lives – while indulging in rampant product placement of course. The film tries to juxtapose the harsh reality of life in downtown Iraq to a downtown supermarket in US of A by showing how utterly unreal it feels for a soldier to be faced with huge shelves under fluorescent lights of just cereal. And how at a trip to the supermarket his shopping cart is completely empty while his wife’s is stacked to the brim.

The tragedy is that such a brilliant movie is probably going to lose out in the Oscar race for Best Picture to a hot air balloon (read ‘Avaturd‘).

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Personal Reflections

University of Surrey forming partnerships with Indian universities

The University of Surrey is heading a group of institutions to forge new academic partnerships with Indian universities. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal was here the university on 15th January to ink the deal. Surrey isn’t the only university in this partnership – as other major universities such as University of London, University of Southampton, University of Kent, and University of Sussex would be participating in this partnership too; with University of Surrey as the coordinating institute.

What this does is that it lays down the groundwork for agreements with possibly even more Indian institution. During a lunch I had this semester with Vice Chancellor Christopher Snowden, he spoke in detail about his vision of creating ties with institutions of higher learning globally. Surrey already does world-class research in electronics, space exploration, health and medicine etc – so the idea is that we share our expertise in the fields we are strong in, and in return strengthen our research in fields the partner institution is good in. This is part of an overall plan to push the university higher in overall ranking within the next ten years.

University of Surrey already has existing partnerships with many universities worldwide, but this is a breakthrough from the Indian perspective as this agreement with IISER Pune is the first agreement with an Indian institution. What this allows is the ability for exchange programmes for students and academics to be set up, and research to be conducted in conjunction with partner institutes. Surrey already does study exchanges and research collaboration with its partner institutions; heck, even I’m probably going on an exchange in my second year.

What this does is that it lays down the groundwork for partnerships with an even greater number of universities in India. If I’m not wrong, the recently made partnership is a first of sorts for any because it allows for study exchanges.

PS – The University of Surrey Students’ Union is running a campaign to raise £3000 for Haiti earthquake relief. If you haven’t thought about donating to Haiti relief yet, this is your chance to join in!