Katheryn Bigelow is an odd mistress, she's surprisingly pushing 60 and looking as young as a 40 year old, and her films are all dark, violent and testosterone filled.
She's a testament to her gender, hell, she made Point Break. Point Break!
Young, Dumb and Full of Come, Johnny Utah, Gary Buesy, it's brilliant!
And she's back with a new film, another Iraq war film, eugh, I know, but this one isn't about the public consensus, the politics of the situation, it's just about a group of men in the situation, and how they face up to it every day, following them as they deactivate bombs.
And by golly is it brilliant. It's more a series of vignettes featuring the same characters in different situations, but that's what you expect, day to day life not a plot about a kidnapped soldier or a murder investigation, there are bombs, they deactivate them, they go back, drink, have a laugh, go out the next day and do it all over again.
By the end of this film you'll be lucky to have a fingernail remaining, nerve-shredding doesn't do it justice, you're there in the action, one false move and it's all over, as noted by the first sequence, starring Guy Pearce of all people.
And he's not the only big name, David Morse has a small role as a dark officer who shoots an insurgent instead of giving him medical support, even Ralph Fiennes appears for a shootout sequence that is so scary you don't know who will survive.
And that's the key to this film. It's all about who will make it out alive, and why they do what they do, with a wonderful heartfelt conversation at the end with two of the team just thinking about what they leave behind if they make that one wrong snip.
It's fast, it's tense, and it somehow makes 2 hours 15 minutes whizz by, a true gem, it looks amazing, sounds amazing, the score is heavy guitars and puts you in the moment, the acting is fantastic and real, and it's just a stunning piece of work that I can't praise enough, I urge you to see this film!
10/10
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