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| Marc |
 Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 10:17 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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billy,
a critical scene in THE HURT LOCKER that gives a quick but significant insight to the character of Sgt. William James is when after a night of stress relieving heavy drinking he gets on his bed and then puts his protective head gear on and just lays there. The message: this guy is so immersed in his work that it has completely enveloped him. That helmet is his hurt locker, his escape and his prison.
Is it more than just coincidence that the character is named William James?
William James was a late 19th century psychologist who wrote books on religion and mysticism. He also experimented with peyote, nitrous oxide and other drugs. James also explored the effects of adrenaline and fear on the body/mind. He likened them to drugs.In the beginning of THE HURT LOCKER there is a quote that states "war is a drug".
From an essay on James: "do we run from a bear because we are afraid or are we afraid because we run? He proposed that the obvious answer, that we run because we are afraid, was wrong, and instead argued that we are afraid because we run."
Sgt. William James confronted fear by not running from it, but heading right in it's direction.
I bet I am the only person that has made this James connection and I think it has validity. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:37 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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THE HURT LOCKER is as intense a film experience as I've had in a very long time. I saw it in a packed theater in Austin (twice). The audience ran the gamut, from senior citizens to teenagers. No one spoke, no one moved, people were hanging on to the armrests of their chairs as if for dear life. And this riveting cinematic experience was accomplished not by computer generated effects, giant sets or bombastic acting, but by great direction, great writing, great acting, great editing. This kind of movie making is a rarity these days and deserves to be celebrated and supported by film lovers everywhere.
Don't be put off by the subject of the movie. This is more than a movie about war, it is a film about human beings being human in inhuman situations. In the midst of death, life seems so much more precious and The Hurt Locker makes you glad to be alive. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:48 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Marc--There is good news and bad news for you. The good news is that I agree with your assessments of the movie. Aren't you pleased?
The bad news? You are not the first to make the William James connection. Don't ask me to cite the reference, though I could no doubt Google it, but I have read it in print already.
Oh, okay, I'll Google it. Just a minute. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:53 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Okay, here's a reference from Time Out Magazine, which not only makes the connection but pooh-poohs its own comment.
"It’s quite likely that Staff Sgt. William James (Renner)—the bomb-defusing expert at the center of the terrific Iraq War action film The Hurt Locker—was named by screenwriter Mark Boal after a certain pragmatic 19th-century philosopher. On the cleverness-to-profundity scale, that falls somewhere between calling a desert-island survivalist Locke and christening a living stuffed tiger Hobbes. But James is more than his moniker, not so much larger-than-life as eternally engaged, gruntlike, with one thing he does better than anyone else." |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:58 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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An interview with Kathryn Bigelow by Peter Keough from The Boston Phoenix:
KB: I don't know if you've seen Amy Taubin's piece on The Hurt Locker in Film Comment. only bring it up because it's hard for me to kind of stand outside whatever these pieces are, these films are, and look at some kind of, the connective tissue from an analytical mind. I guess I try to but maybe, anyway, she does all [that] and, and speaks a lot about The Set-Up and its relation to...
PK: Hurt Locker.
KB: Yeah kind of pulling it all full circle. It's very interesting.
PK: Also, naming the character William James...?
KB: The pragmatist philosopher.
PK: The author of The Varieties of Religious Experience; is that who he's based on? This is William James in Iraq?
KB: Well, you know, he's gotta be somewhere, right? |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 12:14 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| so, my connection is valid. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 12:15 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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billy,
you gotta appreciate my picking up on the James thing, right? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 5:44 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Marc wrote: billy,
you gotta appreciate my picking up on the James thing, right?
I totally do. And you fleshed it out more than the others did. The adrenaline deal was really interesting. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 7:54 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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gromit wrote: I'm sure the bomb suits offer a certain level of protection. Would certainly protect from shrapnel and some degree of concussive impact.
Just got back from seeing The Hurt Locker. An incredible, intense experience. I liked it just slightly less than billy did, but it is the best movie I've seen this year, and one of the best of the decade. Renner was outstanding.
I had one minor quibble on a plot point. Well, two, but they both involved the same character. I thought the psychologist character unnecessarily underlined Eldridge's initial faiure to protect his Team Leader too much. Granted, when Eldridge hesitated to off the guy in the first scene, you could pretty much know he would be faced with a similar chance to act later, twice actually, and that he would need to make the right decision both times, which he did, Having him have the conversations with the psychiatrist made that a little to obvious, I thought. But that was pretty minor, and I wouldn't've mentioned it, except for a bigger problem I had with the psychologist: between the law of superfluous characters and the way they kept cutting to his attempt to deal with a group of Iraqis in a friendly sort of way, thay might just as well have named the character Colonel Deadmeat. I understand the idea that if you let your guard down around anyone, you could be toast, but the point could have been made more effectively either through a character simply letting his guard down instead of drawing it out over five or six cuts. "Does he buy it this time? Is the bomb in the rocks? Nope. Does he buy it this time? Nope. Does he buy it now? Is the bomb in that... Oh, yeah." But as I said, a minor quibble. It is definitely a tremendous thriller, and a deeply felt character study of three people under pressure, and their ways of coping, dealing, and courting it. Great movie.
I might have enjoyed it more if I wasn't suffering from some er, minor digestive issues going in that made me susceptible to the quesy-cam style of most of the shots. I understand the rationale behind making the audience uneasy, but my physical discomfort was a little too much at times. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 8:52 pm |
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| Anyway, that was just a quibble and I probably would not have really noticed part 1 but for thinking about part 2. I hope I see a better movie than The Hurt Locker this year, but I seriously doubt that I will. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:05 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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whiskeypriest wrote: I hope I see a better movie than The Hurt Locker this year, but I seriously doubt that I will.
Well, don't forsake NCfOM; dmariat wouldn't know what to do without you. |
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http://www.wakasaworld.com |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:56 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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lady wakasa wrote: whiskeypriest wrote: I hope I see a better movie than The Hurt Locker this year, but I seriously doubt that I will.
Well, don't forsake NCfOM; dmariat wouldn't know what to do without you. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:23 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| The Third Man is not my favorite movie, though it's one of them. It has my favorite fadeout of them all and one of my favorite scores, as well as a couple of my favorite scenes. For what it's worth, I thought The Hurt Locker was considerably better than No Country for Old Men, though no better and no worse than Fargo, which resides on my all-time best list (as does The Third Man). But what's the use of comparison? They're all really good. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 1:43 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Never saw The Third Man. Read the book, which Graham Greene adapted from his screenplay. I liked it a lot. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:02 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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Everybody should see "The Third Man." It's cinematically as well as dramatically brilliant.
I hear that there will be ten Best Picture nominees this year. That's stretching it a bit, I think. Of course, I seldom see new movies--though right now there are three on my MUST list (Up, Harry Potter, and Hurt Locker). |
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