"If he wasn't an insurgent, he sure as hell is now." So quips Staff Sergeant William James after shooting out a Baghdad cabbie's windshield with his sidearm, and then pressing the muzzle in the center of the man's forehead in an effort to get him to move his car out of a dangerous area. The line is delivered with a wry smirk as the driver is subsequently being hauled roughly from his car by a nearby squad of heavily armed American soldiers. The clever dual-purpose nature of the line — equal parts bravado-fueled action hero witticism and pointed political statement — is at the heart of what makes The Hurt Locker the best film yet made about the Iraq War, and the best American film about war since Platoon.
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