The Hurt Locker: Types of conflict and how cinematography adds meaning to the conflict.

"The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug."

Civilised Vs Savage - Cambridge is from a more privileged background and went to Yale but is now is a hostile war environment in which he is not comfortable with.

Peace Vs War - The soldiers memories of home and their past experiences contrast with the uncertainty of war

Human Vs Self - Eldridge suffers with problems of guilt and post-traumatic stress due to his experiences at war. Yet he is unable to fully overcome this and continues to fight with these problems throughout the film

Human Vs Technology - Both sides (especially James) battle with the outcomes of modern advancement in technology such as better quality guns and bombs.

Sensible Vs Reckless - James is impulsive and listens to only himself, directly contrasting both the sensible Sanborn and James's predecessor.

Soldiers Vs Civilians - The two groups are portrayed as quite separate and divided within the film as the civilians continually stare and the soldiers don't bother to learn any of the language. Yet there is also a great sense of indifference between both groups.

In this scene, the camera zooms out from the man strapped with bomb to show that the square is empty. This reveals that he is alone creates sympathy within the audience.
Then the camera switches to the view of civilians watching from above, adding tension and paranoia to the scene
The camera follows Sanborn's line of vision as he hold his gun up. This restricts the audiences range of vision as we can only see through his eyes for a second. This adds to the tension and places the audience in the shoes of the soldier
The camera zooms in and out quickly (especially into soldiers faces) and unsteadily makes it hard to focus. This compromises the audiences awareness of what is happening and creates a sense of panic.
Later on in the scene, when James is trying to save the man, the scene is shot from a lower angle to put the audience in perspective of the man with the bomb kneeling on the ground.
When disposing bomb, the camera only focuses on one element at a time, making it hard to see what is happening
When bomb goes off, the camera zooms in from a zoomed out shot to add an element of sudden action and fast pace to the scene. The zoomed out section also shows how the man is now all alone.

At the start, when 'Chris' is shot, the camera follows him as he falls down, almost to disorientate the audience and set up a feeling of confusion and panic as the fight scene begins
The director also alternates between close-ups of the mercenaries eyes and faces and the view of the shooters that they see through their scope- does this by using Point of view shots - therefore we are able to see the bullet being fired a couple of seconds before it actually hits one of the mercenaries- adds tension and anticipation as we don't know who it's going to hit or if it's actually going to hit someone.

In this scene there are a lot of high shots looking down at James, alone with the car and the bombs. This creates a sense of isolation and hopelessness as James soon discovers how many bombs are actually in the car and that it would easily kill everyone. These shots also show the perspective of Eldridge and Sanborn as they cover James and check for snipers.
Another effective moment is when James uses a wrench to open the car boot and he sees the bombs, dropping the wrench. The camera shows James letting go of it, then from a different angle it falling, and then it clattering to the floor. This series of shots and the clattering noise of the wrench, adds pace and tension to the scene as so far it has had an almost eerily quiet and subdued atmosphere.

At the beginning of this scene, the director uses close up shot of James, focusing on his eyes- this shot shows that James is deeply thinking something over and makes the audience question what is bothering him
When James is talking to his wife about his experiences at war, the camera pans down to the washing of mushrooms and the cutting of carrots to show contrast between the horrors of James' time at war and the normality of his mundane life now. This therefore hints at his final decision as he chooses war over a mundane life.