The Hurt Locker—Hollywood's first successfully engrossing narrative film about the Iraq war—communicates the absolute insanity, chaos, tension, psychological impact, and sudden brutality of war without beating you over the head with the war-is-bad stick. The Hurt Locker follows a three-man ordnance disposal unit in Iraq as they trudge from bomb site to bomb site, defusing explosives. There is no villain, the squad members aren't pithy tough guys, there is no overarching mission the squad must complete in three acts—their lone goal is survival. It's pants-shittingly tense. (See Movie Times: thestranger.com/film.)