GRADE: A

Director Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” is the best film yet to draw from the current conflict in Iraq; a high-tension, high-wire act that wrings every possible ounce of nerve-racking suspense out of its clear-cut, full-throttle story.

That story involves a three-man bomb squad stationed in Baghdad whose primary (and extremely dangerous) mission is to disarm IEDs (improvised explosive devices); a task made more difficult by the constant threat of snipers, incoming mortar fire and lethal, shadowy insurgents.

A riveting opening sequence (featuring a cameo by Guy Pearce) in which the sheer terror and mind-numbing risk of their job is made plain precedes a masterfully depicted series of similar encounters—each one more hair-raising than the last. And with each successive encounter, both character and audience share rising levels of stress and adrenaline that in Bigelow’s masterful hands become almost unbearable.

The team is led by Staff Sgt. William James, an affable cowboy type who seems to have thrown caution to the wind, but whose courage and knowledge are beyond question. He’s the best at what he does, but conflicted over his love of doing it, a victim of the film’s true premise, set forth in a prophetic quote that begins the action.

J.T. Sandborn is the squad’s number two, an emotionally detached, but highly experienced soldier with no family back home who fears the head-on antics of his new boss are going to get him killed. Owen Eldridge rounds out the trio, a relative newcomer who is convinced he’s destined to die with or without James in the picture; the type of kid whose better nature makes him hesitant to engage the enemy and remorseful after he kills.

The squad has about a month to go until their rotation ends and they’re sent stateside, where James has a young wife and daughter waiting. But the approaching date only makes the men more anxious and unsettled about their prospects for survival, increasing the already phenomenal pressure under which they operate.

It’s an explosive setting, with Mark Boal’s screenplay, adapted from his experiences as a journalist embedded with a bomb squad in Iraq, capturing the extraordinary dealings in completely authentic tones. The dialogue is appropriately sparse and the plotting devoid of contrivance. And there’s no politicking either, the relative merits of the war—its pros and cons—never the source of discussion.

These qualities enable “The Hurt Locker” to achieve an unprecedented level of realism, a quality that’s apparent right from the film’s opening bell. All three leads are pitch-perfect; each creating a multi-dimensional character whose motives and actions both reveal and belie the truth.

Their strong performances, combined with Barry Ackroyd’s searing, long-focus cinematography and Bigelow’s taut direction, which intensifies the events by letting many scenes play out in something approximating real time, make “The Hurt Locker” the first “must see” movie of 2010. Don’t miss this one!

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