Movie Critic Manohla Dargis Works in Left-Wing Iraq Talking Point in 'Hurt Locker' Recap
Liberal movie critic Manohla Dargis managed to insert a class-conscious anti-war talking point into her summary of the acclaimed Iraq War movie "The Hurt Locker," which is getting Oscar attention, in a special Oscars sections Sunday.
Describing a tense scene involving the movie's young bomb tech William James, Dargis worked in a completely extraneous left-wing anti-war trope - that wars are fought by the poor who may not have other enticing career options:
The bomb that James and his crew need to disarm in front of the United Nations building turns out to be inside a car, which an enemy sniper shoots at and almost detonates. Much of the scene involves James's search for the timer, a task he undertakes with ferocious concentration as the increasingly unnerved Sanborn and Eldridge (proxies for the viewers) stand watch. As he searches the car, and particularly after he sheds the bulky protective bomb suit that makes him look like an astronaut or a snow-suited toddler, James begins to resemble the car mechanic he might have been back home. "It looks like he's checking the oil," Eldridge says, reminding you that war is both dirty business (and often fought by the poor) and also work.
