Oscar Central: The Hurt Locker & Inglourious Basterds

The Hurt Locker…One Woman’s Perspective of War
If you are looking for the mind-numbing special effects movie-goers have come to expect at your neighborhood multiplex, don’t order this magnificently real perspective on war in general. The Hurt Locker won the 2010 Best Picture Oscar…against strong competition from a technologically overwrought marvel like Avatar. Leave it to a woman, Best Director winner Kathryn Bigelow (did we mention she was the first woman to ever win this award?), to know that the breathtaking suspense and horrors of war occur in the sweaty detail and tactical strategies of the confrontation of man versus bomb…not the pixilated fireballs and visual enhancements we have come to expect from Hollywood.

This is not a movie about the politics of war; this is a movie about war being the job that the characters do. And, speaking of characters…Jeremy Renner is magnificent as the resourceful staff sergeant who is addicted to the adrenaline rush of life-on-the-edge. The “hurt locker” is the box under his bunk of all the bomb parts and “things that could have killed me.” This collection of deadly memorabilia doesn’t seem to be a consolation to him but rather motivation to do his soldier job the next day.

Inglourious Basterds…One Man’s Revisionary Perspective of War
Brad Pitt takes no prisoners in Quentin Tarantino’s high-octane WWII revenge fantasy Inglourious Basterds, a nominee for Best Picture Oscar. As war raged in Europe, a Nazi-scalping squad of American soldiers, known to their enemy as “The Basterds,” was on a daring mission to take down the leaders of the Third Reich. Bursting with “action, hair-trigger suspense and a machine-gun spray of killer dialogue” Basterds is another Tarantino masterpiece with a crowd-pleasing revision to history.

We found ourselves laughing aloud at the over-the-top antics of the Basterds…and then, being shocked upon absorbing the fact that those antics were savage and brutal as only Tarantino can do savagery and brutality.  And, speaking of funny, savage and brutal…all in one sentence…the performance of Christoph Waltz, as the diabolically sinister and evil Nazi, was the only choice for Best Supporting Actor honors at the Oscars.

Turn off the phone, pop the popcorn, chill the beverage, get in the comfy sweats…you need to watch these two perspectives on war without interruption. Enjoy!