Talking to director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal about their war film The Hurt Locker was more than an honor. Bigelow is responsible for some of the most fast-paced films such as Strange Days and Point Break. She is terrific director and this is her best film yet. It isn’t the run-of-the-mill preachy Iraq war film that we have seen so many times over, but rather a character-driven war film. Make sure you see this film in theaters and don’t wait to rent it – this needs to be seen on the big screen. With that said, it was quite an experience to talk to the duo behind this truly great film. It’s initial release date is June 26th, exapnding in the weeks following.
Mark, how much research did you do for the script?
Mark Boal: Well, a lot. I went to Iraq and I hung out with bomb squad soldiers. I watched them disarm bombs and I went out on missions with them. I lived their life for a while so that was the beginning of the research. I talked to a bunch of other soldiers when they came back from the war. Yeah, so at the end of the day I had many notebooks filled with information. We looked at videos, photographs, and listened to more stories from soldiers. Then we went to Kuwait and I talked to soldiers there and we also went to some bases around the U.S. So quite a lot of research went into the movie.
How accurately did you portrayal the average life of a soldier?
Mark Boal: Well look, it’s a movie and it’s meant to be entertaining. It’s meant to be engaging, artful and all of that. In that context, I think it’s pretty faithful to the kind of situations that men face in Baghdad.
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So would you say that you were more interested in the theatrical side?
Mark Boal: I tried both and we wanted to do both. Kathryn always wanted to make it feel like a boots-on-the-ground experience, and put you in the Hum-Vee with the soldiers. So we tried to make it as real as possible in the context of the movie.
Kathryn Bigelow: My feeling was, because we had the great benefit of having a first hand observation that we should take an advantage of it. That was an opportunity to understand the average day of a soldier’s life. I think certainly speaking as a member of the public at large that we want to know the actions that go on in Baghdad and how important they are.
Did you want to make sure that the film didn’t divulge into choosing a political stance?
Kathryn Bigelow: I think that was important. There is that saying, “There is no politics in the trenches,” and I think it was important to look at the heroism of these men.
Do you think that is a problem with most of the films on today’s war? That there more focused on the political aspects?
Mark Boal: Well, I think there has been some pretty good movies made and there has been some pretty bad ones made just like anything else. Hopefully they realize that this is a combat movie and it’s a little different. If you like intense action, if you like war movies and seeing the extremes of human behavior in dangerous situations then I invite you to check out this one.
There was once scene later on in the film that stood out to me when Jeremy Renner’s character is in a grocery store and he’s looking at all these boxes of cereal, and it’s as if he doesn’t know what to do while he is so precise when it comes to defusing bombs. I felt like there was a big message there, and I was wondering if you could tell me if I am looking to deep into that or was that your intention?
Mark Boal: I would say that’s a very interesting observation on your part.
Were there any scenes in particular that stand out to you while you watch the film that you think has a message? Even if it was purely unintentional.
Mark Boal: Well, you know, you don’t want to give away all your little secrets, you know what I mean? I think with the themes we were more so interested in telling a great story that is a boots on the ground experience while leaving something that some people could relate to.
Kathryn, I don’t know if this is the exact number, but I heard you shot over two-hundred hours of footage with sixteen millimeter cameras documentary style.
Kathryn Bigelow: Yeah, we shot about a million feet of film and in about a forty-four day production schedule. We used sixteen-millimeters with four discrete units, fourteen simultaneously. Basically, I would shoot a scene from beginning to end a few times so it wasn’t broken down and it felt more official. It also gave the actor an opportunity to perform at the service of the task at hand without being self in conscience any way.
Do you think we’ll ever see any of that extra footage? Maybe on the Blu-Ray or possibly extended cut?
Kathryn Bigelow: Well, a lot of it’s in the film, but I don’t know if there would be an opportunity for that later on for a DVD release. I don’t know.
You’ve always been great when it comes to framing action sequences, and I was wondering, how do you generally go about staging action sequences?
Kathryn Bigelow: I always storyboard even while the script is in the process of being written. When I get to a location, I adjust the boards or the way the scene could play out in a specific location. I think that in something like The Hurt Locker, geography is very important for one’s understanding of, let’s say, a three-hundred meter containment. That is a pretty standard area of containment for defusing a bomb, and it was important for the audience to understand that the ground soldiers kind of halt the war for one individual to walk forward to defuse a bomb. So its important to show the geography of that. I think consistently I have always been concerned with geography in any of my action sequences, because you don’t want to lose the audience. I think its really critical and important.
All the POV shots like Strange Days looked fantastic, are those shots challenging to get?
Kathryn Bigelow: They’re not once you kind of figure out the visual language of the movie. It’s really a matter of utilizing a visual vocabulary. In other words, you need wide, tight, perhaps macro, and point of view. So you’re constantly — and at the same time — all the angles you need in motion if the scene is in motion. If it’s not, then you need to be more contained. It really all comes from the material. The material needs to speak through the images and not the other way around.
I thought Marco Beltrami’s score was excellent. How collaborative were you with him?
Kathryn Bigelow: Yeah, I am a huge fan of his work. He came in towards the end of the editing process. He came in and I showed him the scenes we had put together so far. He was onboard immediately, and he also collaborated with Buck Sanders. The two of them did a really extraordinary job. They made a great collaboration.
Will their score be co-released by the film’s release date?
Kathryn Bigelow: You know, there has been some discussion of that, but I don’t think it will be a day and date release along with the film. I am campaigning for that though, because I think that would be wonderful.
You said you shot this in Jordan correct? How was that experience?
Kathryn Bigelow: Yeah, we shot it in the Middle East. It was a pretty excellent shoot. The movie takes place in the Middle East, so I wanted to take it as close to the war zone as we could. Jordan was very hospitable and generous. The great benefit of shooting there was being able to work with Iraqi extras. There were two million refugees from the war there and many of them were actors. That was the great bonus that was available so it wasn’t just only perfect locations, but it was perfect. Every location we had an opportunity to look in every direction.
With the film being released in summer are you worried at all whether it will find an audience?
Mark Boal: No, I think there is always an audience. Hopefully people will realize this is a great story with nail-biting excitement thrown in. I think we got a shot.
What do you guys think makes The Hurt Locker different from all the other war films?
Mark Boal: Oh man, that’s like kind of an impossible question to answer. If you could compose a theory, then I could tell you if I agree of disagree.
I would say that it contains an intensity that most films lack today, would that be fair?
Mark Boal: Oh yeah. I mean, I don’t wanna talk bad about any other movie since I am a big fan of the classics. I like Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now as much as the next guy. If you consider this as good as those films then I am hugely flattered.
I wouldn’t hesitate to compare it to Full Metal Jacket.
Mark Boal: (laughs) Then you are my best friend and I will cook you dinner anytime. I will make you a steak that will blow your mind!
Editor’s Note: This part of the interview is filled with spoilers and I highly recommend not reading this part if you haven’t seen the film yet.
Could you talk about the casting process and how you avoid using name actors to avoid pre-conceptions. Which I think you accomplished by having Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie who are very refined actors, but they help avoid the problem of pre-conceptions. Was that important?
Kathryn Bigelow: That was very important while at the same time I think they’re extraordinary actors. I think the fact that you’re not aware of their actions and in this case then all bets are off.
Its ironic though seeing Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes being cast in such small roles, and their characters get offed rather quickly after they appear. They weren’t distracting at all, but could you talk about why you casted them and what was their reaction to seeing that they killed so quickly?
Kathryn Bigelow: (laughs) They were very eager to come to the Middle East, and we shot the film in Jordan. They were very eager to be a part of the film, and they are great actors. Obviously, Ihave worked with Ralph Fiennes before and we wanted to work together again. He, Guy and David Morse just wanted to be a part of it.
I thought Morse’s role was great. As always, he hit the right note of psychopathic.
Kathryn Bigelow: (laughs) Yeah, I think they are all brilliant and they certainly added something to the film. They also worked greatly with the other actors.
The Hurt Locker hits theaters June 26th and will expand in the coming weeks.