Studying The Hurt Locker

Abstract

This book, drawing on a broad tapestry of research, offers an exploration of The Hurt Locker (2009), its stylistic and narrative devices, its cultural impact, its reception, and its relationship to the genre of the war film. The book begins with an analysis of what The Hurt Locker ultimately portrays about the Iraq War, which was officially brought to an end by President Barack Obama on the 18 December 2011, but still continues to be fought onscreen. It also explores the central contentions that are key to the affective impact of The Hurt Locker during the time of its release and after a decade later. The book places the film in a richly textured historical, political, and industrial context, arguing that The Hurt Locker is part of a long tradition of films about American wars that play a considerable role in how audiences come to understand the conflicts that they depict. Thus, films about a nation's wars are never “only a movie” but rather should be considered a cultural battleground themselves on which a war of representation is waged.