"Inspired By True Events"
The Hurt Locker: A Journalists' Experiences and a Story That Probably Could Happen
The Hurt Locker is a 2008 war film by Kathryn Bigelow. It won Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards, British Academy Film Awards, among many others. It is not labeled as "based on a true story," nor is it labeled as "inspired by true events."
The plot summary in brief according to IMDb.com: " During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work." (Source) The writing for the Hurt Locker is actually based on Mark Boal's (the screenwriter and journalist) personal experience with EOD [Explosive Ordnance Disposal] in Iraq around the time of 2003. His stories, remarked by Bigelow in an interview to Seattle Times, gave her "a reportorial look at what it might be like to be in Baghdad at the point when the city was erupting in bombs." (Source) So the point of it all? |
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True Events Inspire Fiction
There is not much else to say here. Just like Slumdog Millionaire and countless other movies, the Hurt Locker is in fact not "based on a true story," but is instead "inspired" by an actual event or story. It is, unlike Argo and the King's Speech, not attempting to show history.
Maybe this story could happen. Maybe there is a Sergeant William James, stuck in the adrelaline of the EOD and can't return to daily life. It is not too far-fetched. But it is not history, and it is not marketing itself as such. You will have to dig to find out what "inspired" this story.
Maybe this story could happen. Maybe there is a Sergeant William James, stuck in the adrelaline of the EOD and can't return to daily life. It is not too far-fetched. But it is not history, and it is not marketing itself as such. You will have to dig to find out what "inspired" this story.