25 Astonishingly Dumb 21st Century Film Oscar Wins
7. 2010: The Hurt Locker Wins Best Picture And Best Original Screenplay
Beat (Best Picture): Avatar, The Blind Side, Inglorious Bastards, District 9, An Education, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up and Up in the Air.
Beat (Best Screenplay): Inglourious Basterds, The Messenger, A Serious Man and Up.
The Hurt Locker was a little film that could; it underperformed worldwide but then managed to nab the Best Picture Oscar. An impressive feat, but not necessarily one that should've happened.
The Hurt Locker is incredibly well-made - Kathryn Bigelow deserved that directing Oscar - and it offers some very tense set-pieces but other than that, what does the movie really offer? Not much, to be honest.
It fails to every really affect viewers on an emotional level and does little more than repeat the message of "War is a drug" again and again... and again. It's a hollow and ultimately forgettable war film that has, unsurprisingly, had a very short shelf life with audiences.
Even though this was a hit-or-miss Oscar field from what was not a good year for films, The Hurt Locker just doesn't have the substance or weight to be a worthy Best Picture winner. In a just world, the arguable best film of the year, Pixar's Up, would've taken both these awards from The Hurt Locker; Tarantino Stans might argue for Inglourious Basterds as well.
Still, at least Avatar didn't win.