How often have you heard a “period piece” praised for its obsessive detail and ability to “capture” the essence of the era it depicts? Probably more often than Kiera Knightley and Helen Mirren have visited the old-school wardrobe warehouse combined.
Now, how many times have you walked out of a theater and been struck that the movie you just saw totally captured what it meant to be alive in the world at that very second?
Not everyday. Not even every year, as far as I am concerned. More often than not, topical films either miss the window of opportunity (see: W.) or require several years removal from their chosen subject before hindsight can really be 20/20 (see: every other film by Oliver Stone).
In somewhat of a lackluster year for “prestige pictures,” two films stand out for their uncanny reflection and dissection of American life in 2009.
In style and presentation, The Hurt Locker and Up in the Air could hardly be more different. The first, directed by action maestro Kathryn Bigelow (who made the greatest film of all time 18 years ago), rattles and crashes through Iraq as a booby-trapped maze of overwhelming suspense and shocking violence. The second skates so smoothly over the thin ice of romantic comedy that it’s easy to forget just how much of real life that director Jason Reitman (from the maker of Ghostbusters) has hidden under the surface.
Yet, as distant as they are generically, they both deal openly with one of the two major issues that have come to dominate headlines in recent years: the war on terror and the global economic collapse. Of course, Bigelow and Reitman could have easily found themselves in the Oliver Stone Home for Irrelevant Children. Luckily for them (opportunists that they are), we seem to be in it for the long haul on both counts.
The power of The Hurt Locker lies in its intent. The film does not seek, like so many of its predecessors, to show us war as a tragedy. Instead, it depicts war as a job. Like in most jobs, the employees have a love/hate relationship with the work place, with some loving or hating it more than others. However, as these elite bomb disposal specialists come to know, tragedy is unavoidable when you work in the most stressful office on the planet.
Up in the Air is also about jobs, specifically the unemployment crisis, and it takes a keen look at both sides of the chopping block. Somehow, someway, Reitman humanizes corporate suits while refusing to ignore the devastation wrought in the wake of massive downsizing.
They both reach the heights of their respective genres, with Up in the Air walking a comedy/drama tightrope impeccably and The Hurt Locker achieving constant levels of suspense and and visceral impact unprecedented in war pictures. If that was all they did, these would still be two great movies. What makes them better than great is their timeliness and ultimate timelessness.
Movies rooted in a specific time and bound thematically to an era will ultimately seem dated, usually faster than others. However, that date will make them authentic. Back to the Future feels like it could have only been made in 1985, but because that date is essential to the story, the movie will always feel fresh. Someone watching Katherine Bigelow’s film in 20 years might say, “this looks so 2000′s” the same way we would cringe at watching a Def Leppard video from 1983. But if it feels like it was made in these years it documents (it actually takes place in 2004, but its all one big war anyway), that is because it so accurately shows life in these years.
No historical drama about the crash of 2008/2009 will ever ring as true as Up in the Air. It is not self consciously about 2009, it is a true and undeniable product of its time. The people that George Clooney fires are the same that really lost their jobs these past two years, and to watch the film will always be to watch what this year meant to millions of people. It is a feeling that cannot be reproduced in retrospect, and that very feeling will make these films essential viewing for a long time.
If we Americans of 2009 are lucky, the images of Jeremy Renner sweating over a trunk full of explosives and George Clooney looking up at the Departures board will come to define 2009 cinematically.
If not, we might be better off forgotten.
