The Hurt Locker Sound

The Hurt Locker by Kathryn Bigelow is a very well put together and beautifully scored film. From the music score to the precise diegetic sound and audio effects everything in this film gives the viewer an experience as if they were in the battlefield with the characters.

One of the first scenes in the film really caught my attention was when they see the man with the phone while their partner was going to defuse the bomb. Their partner begins running away as they are running to the man with the cellphone he detonates the bomb. They use sound to very vividly paint the picture to everything that is going on and show how serious the situation is. The first thing that we hear is the initial explosion of the bomb realizing the size of the blast. This plays a crucial role in the scene for the viewer to realize what has happened. Than to the little but very vivid sounds of the ground breaking and rocks flying into the air. But what I think is really important that they added was the sound of the rusted car that was shaking from the explosion. This shows the audience how bad the blast was, the added sound of the car vibrating because of it was a very nice touch.

  One thing that found that was interesting to me was that Paul Ottosson said in an interview with Mix Magazine was that he would pan dialog and foley with the main character. It was important for him to have the main character stand out from the others and have the audience feel as if they were in his POV or right on top of the action as a 4^th man on the team. It is noticeable the amount of foley work used on the film but according to Ottosson he states that he had probably never recorded this much foley on any other movies hes worked on.  
This leads me into the next scene that stood out to me, when they were in the middle of the desert using the sniper to take out the enemy from a distance. The foley of the bullet hitting the enemies building and exploding adds the intense feeling of your life almost ending as it hits the wall feet from where you are standing. The very clear dialogue right before the last shot he takes at the enemy has the audience captured in a very intense moment. I caught myself holding my own breath and calming myself down as if I was about to take the last shot with him. The trigger pulls you hear the shot and then Ottoosson uses foley on a shell cashing hitting the ground in slow motion building the suspense of the scene even more as the sound rings out and time slows down. This is a very powerful scene even though you don’t see the target being taken out it does not take away from the scene in any way because you know the job was done.