Oscars & Battle Scars

After your 2002 film K-19: The Widowmaker starring Harrison Ford,how did you reach Baghdad for The Hurt Locker?
In 2004,two years after K-19,I went to do an embed in Baghdad with a bomb squad. I had been fairly unaware of what was going on in Baghdad. It’s a war that has been underreported in many respects,so I was extremely curious,and I suspected that,providing I survived,might come back with some really rich material that would be worthy of a cinematic translation,and that’s what happened. I came back and we started working on the script in 2005,raised the money in 2006,shot in 2007 — and here we are. I just need great material. Not much money,actually,but access to great material and actors. It was a kind of confluence of fate and will.

What made you focus on the Explosives Ordinance Disposal (EOD) unit,to talk about the Iraq war?
In 2004,journalist Mark Boal (who co-produced the film and wrote the screenplay) spent several weeks embedded with a US Army bomb squad in Baghdad,following its movements and getting inside the heads of the men whose skills rival those of surgeons — except in their case one false move means they lose their own lives rather than the life of a patient. Mark’s first-hand observations of their days and nights disarming bombs became the inspiration for The Hurt Locker and,eventually,a script that simultaneously strips down the classic American war epic and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as universal as the price of heroism and the limits of bravery in 21st century combat. And James (Cameron) also motivated me to make it.

Considering the passionate,often polar,opinions in America on the Iraq war,was it difficult to make a movie on the subject?
I realised that the real responsibility was to keep the film reportorial,keep it as honest,realistic and authentic as possible. You describe the psychologies of these men who arguably have the most dangerous job in the world and yet this is volunteer military,so these men have chosen to be here. So there is an interesting psychology at work. It is easy to get distracted when there are too many opinions but it depends on how you handle it. I was very passionate about this movie so I tried my best to overcome all the distractions. We did not intend to hurt anybody’s emotions,we were just showing the harsh reality.

Some technicians of the EOD unit have criticised the movie for the reckless portrayal of their work. How do you respond to that?
Coalition bomb squads have played a pivotal but mostly underreported part in the war,and bringing their work to light was also part of Boal’s motivation for writing the script. The army relies on its bomb squads as the first and last line of defence against the IEDs that have become the insurgency’s weapon of choice. The opening scene depicts the kind of situation that US soldiers in Baghdad encounter on a daily basis. Someone finds an IED,they call in the bomb squad and the bomb squad has to deal with it while everyone else in the military pulls back. The fact that these men live in mortal danger makes their lives inherently tense,iconic and cinematic and on a metaphorical level,they seem to suggest both the heroism and the futility of the war.

Each of the three characters in the EOD unit has distinct personalities. How did the unusual mix come about?
This mix came from the wonderful casting. I wanted to make a film with relatively lesser known characters because when you see a star on screen,you presume that he will stay till the end of the movie,he will be alive … I did not wanted to raise such assumptions. The atmosphere and living conditions were such that all of them were not just acting,it was so real.

You beat Quentin Tarantino and your ex-husband James Cameron to the Oscar.
It is an honour to be in the company of such filmmakers. That is what amazes me and it’s really gratifying. James was happy for me. It’s just extremely ironic. It took him 12 years to make his new film and I took seven for mine; we could not have scripted it.

The Hurt Locker was made with a modest budget of around $11 million. Is it safe to say that you did not have big intentions about the film?
Every movie has its own budget requirements; they cannot be compared. I had great expectations from the movie.

From painting to making action films,how has your journey been? Do you still fancy painting?
I don’t,actually,but I think of films really in the same parameters of art: use the work to justify the work. So I guess I think of tonal balances — of accessibility (meaning entertainment) and substance. And there’s a wonderful tension between the two,and if you can strike the right balance,therein is the art.