IEDs

Watched "Hurt Locker" tonight and I think it's one of maybe 3 films about Iraq that manage not to preach or talk down to the audience (the others being "Jarhead" and "Three Kings" if we're being generous). 

Amid all the awards show hoopla, they didn't mention that the title of the Academy Award Winner for Best Picture of 2009 comes from a poem. Off the top of my head, this is maybe the 3rd film I know of to come from a poem. ("Man from Snowy River" and "Eugene Onegin" being the others.)


Here it is.

The Hurt Locker

Brian Turner

Nothing but the hurt left here.
Nothing but bullets and pain
and the bled out slumping
and all the fucks and goddamns
and Jesus Christs of the wounded.
Nothing left here but the hurt.


Believe it when you see it.
Believe it when a 12-year-old
rolls a grenade into the room.
Or when a sniper punches a hole
deep into someone’s skull.
Believe it when four men
step from a taxicab in Mosul
to shower the street in brass
and fire. Open the hurt locker
and see what there is of knives
and teeth. Open the hurt locker and learn
how rough men come hunting for souls.