The Hurt Locker Gets Handed a Lawsuit… What Else Can Go Wrong?
A couple of days ago we reported on some last minute controversy surrounding Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker as we head into Oscar weekend. Some of the sudden backlash smelled like a possible smear campaign against the film (Harvey Weinstein trying to position Inglourious Basterds for an upset, perhaps?), but since most of the ballots had already been cast, no one expected it to make much of a difference. Either way, that hasn’t stopped even more people from coming out and denouncing the film this week.
The L.A. Times reports that a lawsuit is currently in the process of being filed against the producers of the film courtesy of Sgt. Jeffrey Sarver, a real-life bomb disposal technician. Sarver was one of the people featured in screenwriter Mark Boal’s September 2005 Playboy article entitled The Man in the Bomb Suit. Sarver claims that he was the direct inspiration for Jeremy Renner’s character in the film, that he coined the term, “The Hurt Locker”, and that he deserves financial compensation. Boal responds by saying that he drew inspiration from a number of different soldiers, and that “hurt locker” is common military slang. The thing I don’t understand about all this is that if Sarver’s claim is true, and all this stuff really did happen to him, then doesn’t this shoot down all the other accusations that the movie isn’t authentic? Either way, the movie didn’t make a ton of money to begin with (just $19 million worldwide) but it is still the odds-on favourite to win Best Picture this Sunday.
