When the "Hurt Locker" is inside of them, where are their war movies?

What was the point of this movie? Was it to get people to take the a personal interest in the sacrifices made by our servicemen and women? Address the fact they have dangerous jobs? Show their courage and dedication? Maybe it was so that people would finally pay attention to the fact we have two wars on and no one seems to care?

War movies are nothing new and there will always be some folks cheering while others shun it. There will always be heroes and villains in these movies and always some type of personal agenda being filled. What there has not been enough of is the type of movie like "The Best Years of Our Lives" showing what it is like when they come home. Seven academy awards for this old movie about "them" and not just about war itself.

What about a movie like this with the only agenda is to tell their story after they come home? What about a movie focused on a "lifer" suddenly finding himself/herself so wounded they can no longer remain in the military and must then try to find a way to give up the only dream they ever had? What about a movie on National Guardsmen and women and how their families have to deal with the deployments into Iraq and Afghanistan instead of just risking their lives to save their neighbors after a natural disaster? What about one on how they return from deployment finding they have lost their businesses and there are no jobs for them find? Hey, what about the fact that a lot of the National Guards and Reservists are also police officers and firefighters risking their lives in other nations and then risking them on the streets of their home towns and cities?

Movies can hide behind a character but the ones worth watching are focused on caring about the real characters first. I have not seen this movie yet. I plan to when it comes on Pay-per-view because I heard it is very good, but this in no way stops me from longing for a movie like "Best Years" to tell their story.

I just had a conversation with a daughter of a Vietnam POW. She had a sticker on the back of the SUV she was driving, "All Gave Some, Some Gave All, Some are still giving" and I wanted to know where she got it from. She told me her father was a POW in Vietnam and that he wouldn't go to the VA for help. She told me he was still suffering from what he went through. Imagine that? He is living the life of a "hurt locker" because all he went through is locked away in his memory. We read about phony heroes all the time but here is a man suffering in silence all these years later and no one knows his story.

'Hurt Locker' Under Military Attack as Oscars Approach
By Ed Barnes
- FOXNews.com

Five days before the Oscars are awarded, "The Hurt Locker," what some people are calling "the best Iraq war movie to date," finds itself under attack.


Five days before the Oscars are awarded, what some people are calling "the best Iraq war movie to date" finds itself under attack.

"The Hurt Locker," a Best Picture nominee that portrays coalition soldiers disarming bombs in the heat of battle, is being criticized by some veterans and current members of the military, who say it presents them as being “too much John Wayne.” Moreover, the attack seems to have the outright support of the military itself, despite its endorsement by the secretary of defense.

Last week the Army arranged a series of interviews for the Los Angeles Times with enlisted men and officers who have questioned the authenticity of the movie and its depiction of the members of Army Explosives Ordinance Team (EOD) working in Iraq. The movie, written by a journalist, Mark Boal, who was embedded with an EOD in Iraq, focuses on the character of Staff Sergeant William James, played by Jeremy Renner, who becomes addicted to the adrenaline rush of his job, often to the detriment of his unit.

Several active EOD servicemen currently serving in Iraq told the Times that they disagreed with the film's depiction of their work. One said that the portrayal was amateurish, “the equivalent of a firefighter going into a building with a squirt bottle.” Another charged it was “too much John Wayne and cowboy stuff.”

For the most part, criticism has focused on the character of Sgt. James, the movie's lead character. Ryan Gallucci, who served in Iraq in 2003 and now works for Amvets, a veterans' organization, said, “I thought the movie was great until the time they introduced the character played by Jeremy Renner. After that it was all downhill. I felt they portrayed the military in a negative fashion. I had to turn it off several times and, in the end, I was pulling for him to get blown up.” Renner is nominated for the Best Actor Award.

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Hurt Locker Under Military Attack as Oscars Approach