“A Different Kind of War Film: The Ethos of the Individual Soldier in The Hurt Locker”
by Mikal Lambdin | Xchanges 11.2
“I Wanna Die Comfortable”: War is a Game Cont.
James’s addiction and detachment are examined from a different angle toward the end of the film, after he has returned home to his family. He briefly converses with his wife while cooking dinner, this time demonstrating a detachment from civilian life:
JAMES. Some guy drove his truck to the middle of an Iraqi market, starts passing out free candies. All the kids come running up, the families and stuff. He detonates. They’re saying 59 are dead. You know they need more bomb techs.
As James begins the story, it sounds harmless. He highlights the candy and the children, smiling as he describes their eagerness. When he reveals the tragic conclusion, his tone changes ever so slightly, becoming stiff and remote. In the long pause that follows, the audience wonders as to the purpose of this heartbreaking story. Does James truly enjoy reminiscing on these horrific memories while his wife chops carrots in the kitchen? The pained look on his face as he gazes out the window quickly negates this explanation, while his next line is illuminating: “You know they need more bomb techs.” After surviving a life-threatening rotation to return to his family, all he can think about is going back.
James ironically uses the value of family to validate the desire to escape his own — he defends his case for the sake of the children, as he seeks to leave his own child behind. Yet his active manipulation in part reveals something that is absent from the scene where he expresses the desire to die comfortable. While arguably just as detached, here James expresses an awareness of his detachment. His actions reinforce this knowledge, and even suggest shame. After finishing his story, James falls silent and gazes quietly out the window, his eyebrows ever so slightly furrowed. Although faint, there is no mistaking the resignation and guilt on his face as he turns to stare at the ground and reveals his intent, his voice no more than a whisper. This scene emphasizes his detachment from the world around him, thus strengthening his ethos as an addict of war.