Mise-en-scène of The Hurt Locker

What The Hurt Locker does well is atmosphere and authenticity. Action and war films obviously aren't filmed in the midst of war, they're filmed on a set with lighting and cameras and boom microphones and crews and coffee machines, but the real challenge is to make the film feel as if it were filmed in the midst of war. Certain techniques and set designs do this effectively, but since The Hurt Locker ticks all the boxes when it comes to Mise-en-scène, it's a prime example to study.

Set Design

Creating a war-torn village isn't too tall a challenge, as it's best to film on location. The Hurt Locker was shot in Jordan, within miles of the Iraqi border, so that Kathryn Bigelow (the director) could reach a level of authenticity. The desolate structures and monotonous yellow/brown tone of the village created a feeling of crushing dereliction and loneliness, suitable for the films tone. Sand is everywhere in this particular village, but sand has a somewhat deeper meaning than simply granular material composed of finely divided Silicon Dioxide; sand creates a smokescreen, a fuzzy and permeable shield that disables you from clearly seeing the enemy on the other side. Mark Boal (the man responsible for The Hurt Locker's Oscar-winning script) said, "This movie is kind of like a horror film where you're unable to see the killer".

Cinematography 
The camera-work in The Hurt Locker is distinctly interesting, as it's almost entirely hand-held. Bigelow sought to immerse audiences "into something that was raw, immediate and visceral". The hand-held cameras (The Hurt Locker was filmed on four Super 16mm Cameras) were shaky, unclear and often nausea-inducing, much like war itself. The purpose of the four 16 mm cameras to capture multiple perspectives was justified by Bigelow, stating, "This movie is kind of like a horror film where you're unable to see the killer," says Innis. "You know a bomb could go off at any minute, but you never know just when it's going to happen, so the ideas of Hitchcock - about making your audience anxious - were influential for us when we did the editing."

Editing 
There were 200 hours of raw footage that Chris Innis and Bob Murawski had to work with for The Hurt Locker, which took eight months to complete editing. In necessary scenes, it's sharply edited with short and fast takes, to create a tension, jeopardy and suspense when needed. Even when it's only focusing on two things at once, the cuts between them are frequent, but the viewer never loses focus.

Costumes

The army men wear army clothes, so it's instantly identifiable if we've ever seen a modern war film before or played a modern war game before. The locals wear clothes specific to their environment and wealth, mainly rags and hand-me-downs for the children, but there's a particularly striking scene later on where a man with a suit has a bomb strapped to his chest, claiming it was put there by terrorists and not himself. Would the squad have given him the benefit of the doubt if he were wearing rags or even a veil? There's resonance to to clothes certain cultures wear  and how other cultures perceive them.

Sound and Dialogue
You can't go 10 minutes in The Hurt Locker without encountering army vehicle noises, like helicopter propellers and the engine of a speeding Hummer. To make an authentic environment all the more authentic, you hear the screams and shouts of the locals when they are escorted to protection due to the threat of a nearby explosive. You hear the colloquial language used by the soldiers and bomb defusal experts, so that we know that these particular men are soldiers and bomb defusal experts, and not Average Joe's pulled out of your nearest furniture shop.

People say they want more 'realism' in their movies and games. They want everything to be more 'realistic', to feel like 'real life' as it were. No film or game, no matter how scientifically or technologically accurate they are, has to use a bit of Artistic License here and there, because that's what entertainment it; suspending disbelief. What they really mean is 'authenticity'. The authenticity of a war-torn Iraqi village; the authenticity of piloting a helicopter in Battlefield; the authenticity of a man defusing an explosive. In order to suspend disbelief, the belief has to be put in place first, in the form of authenticity.