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The Hurt Locker Film Analysis

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The Hurt Locker shows the madness, insanity, and total recklessness of soldiers trapped in the downward spiral of the Iraq war. The film itself does not take on a political stance. Kathryn Bigelow decided against the spoon-fed political message of previous “War on Terror” films of the time, leaving out the typical war ideology, and chose to focus on a specific team of soldiers. The Hurt Locker, like all film according to Cormolli and Narboni, is inherently political. “Film is part of the economic system, it is also part of the ideological system.” To determine the true ideology of the Hurt Locker and where it fits within Cormolli and Narboni's film categories, one must first understand what ideology means. "Originating as a philosophical term, …show more content…

Like some war stories, they focus on adventure and escape. In the tradition of a long line of famous and infamous carousers and their chroniclers, even hangovers and near-death experiences and visits to the emergency room can be made to seem glamorous.” War stories can also be sinister. They can act as a gateway to the thrill of action and adventure. Many will never experience what war is like, but those who have been on the battlefield have been changed. Nolan Peterson, a former special operations pilot and a combat veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and The Daily Signal’s foreign correspondent, wrote about his experiences with war addiction. "For hours, maybe even days after you evade death, life just seems, well, better. You laugh easier. Things smell better. You notice little details in places and things you have seen countless times before. You want to talk about what happened, you want to tell friends and family that you love them. You live harder and truer than you ever have before. And it feels good." Nolan's descriptions seem to mirror that of a cocaine addict - "When cocaine is taken in small amounts, it produces feelings of empowerment, self-esteem, euphoria, temporarily decreased need for food and rest, and an unusual rush of energy." Even the "coming down" effects seem to mirror each other, with both addicts experiencing depression,

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Rhetorical Analysis of Michael Moore’s “Sicko” Documentary Sicko is a documental film made by Michael Moore in 2007. The director is the main speaker in the movie. Moore is a famous American documentary maker who was awarded for several of his works. There was not any special occasion for creation of this film; it looked like the director collected enough facts from different time periods and social groups and decided to reflect the situation in his new project. Moore mentioned some horrible, contradictory cases, they all had similar level of “severity”; there was not any specific event that could be treated as the trigger for the documentary’s creation.

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War and its affinities have various emotional effects on different individuals, whether facing adversity within the war or when experiencing the psychological aftermath. Some people cave under the pressure when put in a situation where there is minimal hope or optimism. Two characters that experience

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Ethical challenges are of universal span; many people including police officers are confronted with the opportunities for violating organizational rules and norms daily. Most of the stories about police officers in the media, including Cops and Criminal Minds, are about respectable police officers, but the intense 2001 movie Training Day is not. Alonzo Harris, a veteran police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is training Jake Hoyt, a rookie officer on his first day with the narcotics unit. Harris’ character is an example of police officers’ potential for corruption. For instance, when Harris misuses the police authority and uses some fake arrest warrant seizing millions of dollars from a former LAPD veteran, now an informant

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The long duration of war takes a toll on soldiers and they are forced to tuck their emotions into a place far away, and not feel anything. If these emotions drove their actions, they would never accomplish anything at war. They turn into dehumanized machines in order to survive the horrors of war. Writing and telling stories of war allow for them to feel emotions again, “But this too is true: stories can save us” (O’Brien 225). Human beings need to release their emotions, and these

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Films are a great way of communicating a message to the viewers. One of the most controversial topics conveyed is politics and for this reason, Mr Smith Goes to Washington is a movie that explores the American political system through the life of Senator Jefferson Smith a newly elected politician. He comes out as a radical after realising that he cannot serve the interest of those who elected him to the government. The director of the film explores a radical sense ideological spectrum through a character who maintains integrity in the midst of harsh criticism in the political system. The director is radical trying to anger the political class and then win acclaim from the public.

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The ideology that is presented in the film is people create strong bonds in during difficult times. Spielberg has displayed this ideology using various aesthetic features such as symbolism, camera angles and lighting. Symbolism displayed the ideology through the use of the symbol 'brotherhood' which displayed how close the soldiers were. Camera angles showed the relationship between the characters and lighting highlighted how the relationships formed and when. Therefore in brief Spielberg successfully positioned the audience to believe in the dominant ideology by using aesthetic features to show the relationships between

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“Sergeant James... headsabomb-disposal squad, and his task is to defuse the omnipresent IEDs without blowing up his comrades or himself in the process” (Platzner) The Hurt Locker is an ideal frame of reference for Bigelow’s themes and techniques. Bigelow uses the camera to create a sense of hysteria and chaos on screen and to instill restlessness into the viewer. When James, Sanborn, and Owen, and a British squad in the middle of the desert are ambushed (0:54:17), Bigelow makes the camera very shaky and uses zoom shots to model the intense, frantic environment of a firefight (0:54:30). She also employs multiple different point of views in this scene, such as an over the shoulder shot of the British sergeant shooting war prisoners (0:55:31), a first person shot through the sniper’s scope (0:56:31), an Iraqi soldier looking back at the squad and through his sniper scope (0:57:07, 0:57:12, respectively), giving the audience a first person view of every aspect of the battle; it successfully translates the pressure and fear soldiers face in combat. Additionally, by using heat waves and shots of time passing as the soldiers accumulate more and more dust, Bigelow succeeds in creating an environment on screen that makes the audience feel hot and dry.

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Spielberg, I believe tends to be too much “Westernized”. Mr. Donovan fights for the American values and the Western way of living, despite the many (often irrational) attempts to stop him from doing so by most of the Americans depicted in the film. While Mr. Donovan fights to defend the Western value of “liberty” and “equality”, his countrymen are too much blinded by their fear of Communism to realize that they and Mr. Donovan are defending the same values. Nevertheless, while Mr. Donovan relies on the rights and duties of “every human being”, his countrymen (which include judges, attorneys, and journalists) act through their fears (Mr. Spielberg may have been thinking of toady’s crisis and debates). The main point here, however, is how Hollywood tries to promote the American core values of “fighting for what is right”.

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