The Hurt Locker had its South by Southwest screening last night (6:30 pm) at Austin’s Paramount, and there’s been nothing but radio silence from the live-wire types who are supposedly covering. Nothing from HE‘s Moises Chiullan, nothing on AICN, nothing from New York/Vulture’s Eric Kohn, nothing from MCN’s Kim Voynar or Noah Forrest, nothing from the transgressive James Rocchi. Snail-paced reportage every which way.
During their recent NYC visit Hurt Locker dierctor Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter-producer Mark Boal said that Jeremy Renner‘s edge-junkie character (i.e., Sgt. James) is an amalgam of guys Boal ran into during his embedded time in Iraq, which only lasted a couple of weeks.
How many adrenalin junkie/danger freaks did Boal run into over there exactly? It’s pretty remarkable that he ran into enough of them there in two weeks time to create an amalgam character. Who exactly are these guys? What are their names? Are any of them still in Iraq, or have they call come home to the narcotized comfort of life in the United States? Have any of them seen the film?
