"A Different Kind of War Film: The Ethos of the Individual Soldier in The Hurt Locker"
Mikal LambdinMikal has a BA in English with a concentration in Writing and Rhetoric from George Mason University. She most recently worked as an Undergraduate Research Assistant for Writing Across the Curriculum, where she wrote research-driven blog posts about composition from a student perspective. She enjoys pushing the envelope when writing by creating her own rhetorical frames and finding connections between dissimilar topics like children’s literature and politics. Mikal lives in Arlington, Virginia, with her doctor-to-be husband and hyperactive cat. Contents"I Don't Know": Leaving Things Out "I Don't Know": Leaving Things Out Cont. "I Wanna Die Comfortable": War is a Game "I Wanna Die Comfortable": War is a Game Cont. "With Me I Think It's One": Man Over Machine |
ConclusionBy making the character of James its first priority, The Hurt Locker was able to accomplish an artistic feat that is rarely seen in film, war or otherwise. It does not offer a soldier who is macho, romantic, and heroic all in one, always ready to make the necessary sacrifice and unburden his soul at the opportune moment. Instead, it offers a soldier who is authentic, unique, and relatable – who is real – and it uses anonymity, detachment, and vulnerability to achieve that realness. James’s ethos as an honest individual is owed to these three rhetorical hallmarks of his character, each strategically expressed through countless, subtle ways, whether a word, a facial expression, or a tone of voice. Through the careful crafting of James as an individual, The Hurt Locker remains objective, yet simultaneously sends an important message: perhaps there is no soldier archetype. Rather, soldier, and war itself, is a context, which can contain any number of different persons. The Hurt Locker gives us one of them. |