Welcome to the hurt locker: The improvised explosive device, or IED, has long been the weapon of choice for the insurgency in Iraq and now, increasingly, in Afghanistan. To take care of the threat, groups of elite explosives specialists, called Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams, are called in to dispose of, or safely detonate, IEDs. The Oscar-nominated film, The Hurt Locker, portrays one such team working in Baghdad. Critics say the film skews reality by depicting soldiers as thrill-seekers and rebellious and by portraying combat inaccurately. The following are a selection of photos from Iraq and Afghanistan of real explosive specialists -- and the very real explosives they work with. Above, an Iraqi soldier from a Bomb Disposal Company wears a protective bomb suit during an EOD demonstration on October 6, 2009, in northern Iraq.
Staff Sgt. Luke P. Thelen/Dvids Images
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LEMONJULIE
3:08 PM ET
March 5, 2010
The Real Hurt Locker
the pictures look exactly like the movie.
all this controversy... movies are movies. they have to put some dramatic human condition into the story or its not a movie, its a documentary. even biography movies take a lot of poetic license.....what i like about the movie is that it brought the damn evil effing bush wars into our homes like no other movie has, nor for that matter like any doc - the docs are too miserably tortuous to watch. because it was a movie, with a story, i could stomach it. so to me, it was a necessary, message driven movie for the sheep masses, and a good one in the bargain.
JAYDEE001
11:20 AM ET
March 8, 2010
Not sure what is so controversial
LemonJulie is correct. The pictures do look like the movie. The notion that the movie glamorized 'gung-ho' EOD specialists is far-fetched. The movie portrayed a single specialist who was adicted to the danger of his job, and who scared the willies out of his teammates. The situations portrayed in the movie were as close to typical as you can get in a movie about the heroism of the soldiers who do the very hazardous job of disposing of IEDs, etc.
I have not heard much about the alleged controversy. Saw it in a theater in Southern Utah, where I was one of about six people in the theater. I assume everybody else was 'at the mall'. Some of the scenes were so dramatic I held my breath until they were over. This is a movie about great individual heroism, and it does portray the real costs of war to the humans who fight it, to the extent that movies can do that.
Maybe after its haul of Oscars, this critically successful movie will get some additonal play and reward its creators with the commercial success it deserves.
ISAACYOUN
2:00 PM ET
March 8, 2010
God BLess
God bless all of the OED specialists who risk their lives for this us, this country, and freedom and peace everywhere.
BUTTERFISH22
9:53 PM ET
March 8, 2010
No job for me!
No job for me!
BOBCOMBS
5:28 PM ET
March 9, 2010
The first picture
Is it coincidental that the black shapes on the wall behind the soldier appear to spell the letters "E O D"? If so (if not?), then this is an amazing photograph.
ELI
7:45 PM ET
March 9, 2010
Thanks for sharing those
Thanks for sharing those amazing images. God Bless to those EOD team members, doing great work to their mother land and the countries which effected from land mines. Once again God Bless you all (EOD team). Find more
articles.
SEZWHO
11:10 PM ET
March 9, 2010
required viewing for all Americans
Ditto on everything lemonjulie said. The Hurt Locker should be required viewing for all Americans, many of whom can (and sadly do) live out their daily routines totally insulated from what is going on outside their myopic line of sight. Hopefully the Oscar sweep has given the film the publicity it deserves and the viewing audiences will grow.
GRAHAM_KING
12:13 AM ET
March 15, 2010
The vehicle is a Cougar, not a Buffalo
The vehicle in the picture on Page 2 looks more like the Cougar Armoured Fighting Vehicle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar_%28vehicle%29), than the 6-wheeled Buffalo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_%28mine_protected_vehicle%29).
GRAHAM_KING
12:14 AM ET
March 15, 2010
I meant page 3
I meant page 3