Hurt Locker

cb7893 said:
DS and DW went to ChiTown for spring break. I inserted The Hurt Locker in the Netflix queue. I never watched it because I have generally blow off any film that Hollywood praises, based on aesthetics not necessarily ideology.

I was curious about a couple of things. The first is accuracy. I assume from the posts that it is close enough. The second is if our DS's and DW's, who aspire to officer ranks really understand who does the work and who makes up the casualty lists. Based on the obits in my medium sized midwestern newspaper, it is mostly enlisted persons being killed or maimed by IED's, ambushes, suicide bombs, etc. which seem to be the weapon of choice of our adversaries. The third is, did Ahmed Chalabi, a native Baghdadi and college chum of Paul Wolfowitz give Dick Cheney and Wolfowitz any idea about what awaited American troops when he did his sales job.

Kind of makes me wonder why we waste our time talkiing about Drone fighters and F-35's.
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I don't even know where to start with this.
 
scoutpilot said:
I don't even know where to start with this.
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The posts seem to answer the first question and generally support the accuracy of the film. History answers the third question.

How about the second question, which is probably the most important and relevant at this time.

Scout, no one answers these questions better than you.
 
cb7893 said:
The posts seem to answer the first question and generally support the accuracy of the film. History answers the third question.

How about the second question, which is probably the most important and relevant at this time.

Scout, no one answers these questions better than you.
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The second question. They all "do the work." Yes there are more enlisted casualties, but there are also more enlisted. Some of the real "hands on" stuff, especially in the Army, drops off more with the senior ranks, but you have O-1s and O-2s and O-3 and O-4s out there with them too.

I'm not sure how "real" death is until it's in their faces, but I'm guessing the men and women training now know that people die, and that those numbers involve higher numbers of enlisted than officers.
 
I don't know who's "EOD Friend" told them that the film is accurate...
 
Well, some aspects aren't too far off.
The bit about a lone EOD guy going out by himself to get his personal grievances met is about as realistic as Chuck Norris going to North Vietnam to rescue POWs after the war ended!
 
raimius said:
Well, some aspects aren't too far off.
The bit about a lone EOD guy going out by himself to get his personal grievances met is about as realistic as Chuck Norris going to North Vietnam to rescue POWs after the war ended!
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There is the part where the EOD is also a great marksman and can operate a Barrett .50 better than the PMCs who were using it, and the part where he thinks it is a good idea to pull a series of wires connected to multiple artillery shells, and the parts where he disobeys orders and receives no punishment. I'm sure there are more but its been so long I've seen it I can't remember. I guess their equipment is accurate...

Don't get me wrong, its an entertaining movie but if I wanted to watch an accurate war movie I can think of a lot more before I would resort to the Hurt Locker.
 
It's also good to remember that accurate doesn't always equal entertaining.
 
LineInTheSand said:
It's also good to remember that accurate doesn't always equal entertaining.
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I think why some people have a problem with the movie is because they tried to make it accurate and pay tribute to EOD members but fell short of the mark. Nobody has a problem with Rambo because the creators didn't try to portray actual soldiers.
 
PupNSuds said:
I think why some people have a problem with the movie is because they tried to make it accurate and pay tribute to EOD members but fell short of the mark. Nobody has a problem with Rambo because the creators didn't try to portray actual soldiers.
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Rambo wasn't an actual soldier? :eek: :confused:
 
Excuse Me!!!

Not according to Colonel Trautman, he was able to calm down Rambo by visiting old stories from Bragg. Trautman also suggested everyone at the police station to procure a good supply of body bags too. But noooo they wouldn't listen.

Trautman, was the real hero!

Push Hard, Press Forward
 
Just put Severe Clear in the Netflix instant queue. Thanks.

I appreciate the responses, especially the Act of Valor and Rambo riffs.

I watched Hurt Locker Years after its release based on the credibility of the Director. I thought Zero Dark Thirty was good.

What got me thinking most was about the officers vs. enlisted. In many ways, this forum is a little bit of a bragfest about our sons and daughters who are off to become officers. This sounds terrible, but unless our top whatever% SA/xROTC bound kids were on a sports team, they would probably did not have much contact with the kids with more limited prospects after high school, who make up the majority of the enlisted ranks.

I guess the bottom line is I want make sure that my "master of the universe" understands the sweat, blood, guile, smarts and sacrifice of guys like the ones portrayed in the film. I especially want him to understand it before he gets the shiny bars.

I will say that the person DS most respects of anyone he met in the military so far was his batallion commander from last year who was enlisted for 5 years before entering ROTC. I also think he is just plain scared of the MSG who is Commandant of the battalion. I think he gets it.

Hurt Locker showed a disconnect between the enlisted and their commanders. That was the accuracy I was most interested in.
 
cb7893 said:
Hurt Locker showed a disconnect between the enlisted and their commanders. That was the accuracy I was most interested in.
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The only "disconnect" I remember from the movie was the main character choosing to ignore orders and do his own thing :confused:
 
cb7893 said:
Thanks for illustrating my point.
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I don't think that's a very accurate portrayal of the relationship between officers and enlisted soldiers...that type of incident would most likely never happen, and if it did, it would only happen once. 3 man teams are generally not allowed to go Rambo and fight the war all by themselves.
 
I have a few LT friends who are EOD officers and their response to the movie was simply "meh".

I do think that O-5 psychiatrist (MD), with my knowledge of the AMEDD purpose and structure, just tagging along on the mission was pretty ridiculous...
 
Aglahad said:
I have a few LT friends who are EOD officers and their response to the movie was simply "meh".

I do think that O-5 psychiatrist (MD), with my knowledge of the AMEDD purpose and structure, just tagging along on the mission was pretty ridiculous...
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I thought he was a Chaplain:redface:

That is the first emoticon I've ever used.
 
GoArmyBeatNavy said:
this was a good documentary about the OIF invasion. fitting as the 10th anniversary is Tuesday/Wednesday.
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Watched it, Severe Clear. Totally unqualified to comment on the accuracy of its representations.

Given that scale of the invasion, and the implied cost of the care, feeding, and outfitting of the troops, it is easy to understand how such an operation could cost as much as it does.

Would also recommend Combat Rescue on Nat Geo.
 
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