The Hurt Locker: Cinematography Analysis

The Hurt Locker was released in 2008 and was a hit; Winning six Oscars including ‘Best Picture’ and six Baftas including ‘Best Film’. The film is based on the story of a soldier who disarms bombs and struggles that come with being a soldier.

The film shows a lot of good camera shots ranging from low shots to high ones. I will be talking about a scene where the main character Sargent William James is with two other soldiers searching a hide out. Lets start with the second shot of the scene…

The second shot of this scene is a high angle shot. This is could be show a point of view of someone above but I think its to establish the location. Its shows that it’s a very dull sandy place and everything is the same colour even the soldiers. Dull colours of the scene could be seen as ironic because the film or the situation isn’t boring at all. This shot could also represent the fear of the soldiers in Afghanistan showing them as small and frightened of their situation. This shot is followed by close up shots of the soldiers talking to prepare themselves, talking and loading their guns. 

The scene uses a lot of the rule of thirds. Two examples of this are shown below.

The first shot is a perfect framing example showing one soldier on each side and then one in the middle at the end of the corridor. This kind of shot is a nice looking shot for the viewer’s eyes. This is also a good example of a point of view shot but rather than a soldier it is the audience’s point of view. The director cleverly does it because it almost gets the audience involved in the film and the situation. Because of this the audience feels more tension than they would if it was filmed normally.

In the second shot shown you can see the rule of thirds used but this time it is shown because of the space between the two men. This shows that they are not very close and will not be the best team. It also shows that they aren’t very confident about what’s going on in the house.

The film uses a lot of handheld shots. In fact most of this scene is filmed with handheld shots. I know this because the camera is very jittery and unstable at times. This creates a reality to the film as it is based on a real event. The handheld shots work really well with the point of view shots as it looks like someone is walking and looking around. Just because the shots are jittery this does not mean that they move smoothly. When the camera pans from one character to the next it moves pretty smoothly. A good example is when there is a long shot after they have walked out of the corridor.

Last of all; there quite a few close up eye level shots. The one shown below is an extreme close up which shows the fear and awareness of the soldier. The other eye level shots aren’t as close up as this one but this just shows the variety of shots used by the cameraman and the director. Eye level shots are used to show fear as stated above but they also prove that it’s a scary job.

As the scene comes to an end you think the horror and trauma is over but then you see a dead body, which turns your stomach. I feel that this scene is a perfect example of cinematography and also for creating tension and setting a mood. The tension is built up perfectly, although it comes down to nothing big. It still sets your emotions going in a spiral.