“For what it’s worth, I was at [last night’s 6 pm screening] of The Hurt Locker and liked it quite a bit,” writes Newark Star-Ledger critic Stephen J. Whitty. “I’ve always liked Kathryn Bigelow (and yet strangely, Point Break least of all) and thought this one not only hit all her old themes (male bonding, the rush of risk, loyalty vs duty) but also managed a take on this war I haven’t seen before.
“I agree it’s going to be a challenging sell down the road, but this really is one of those iraq war movies that’s not about the Iraq War. It’s about “what do you do when your boss is an adrenaline junkie?” The guys in it could just have easily been cops or firemen or John Ford cavalrymen.”