A shaking camera. Ground level. Debris everywhere. This is our introduction to the war in Iraq through the eyes of director Kathryn Bigelow. Several different vantage points in quick succession gives us the impression of seeing the scene unfold through the eyes of multiple people while the army is shown moving in. After the robot fails in discharging the bomb, a soldier is forced to go in himself. We get the viewpoint of a soldier – implied by the eyeline match – and then another, as the camera shoots through the scope on a gun, and finally one more through the bomb mask as the soldier sent in to defuse the bomb looks to the sky. We are thrown into the suit with him as the only sound from the film becomes his labored breathing. Obstructed shots from around the area – most notably one from a meat shop – then gives us the vantage point of a civilian as he watches over the target area.
Chaos. During a reverse shot between the two soldiers standing guard discussing how much the area needs grass and the profit opportunity, they spot the meat shop civilian holding a phone, used for detonating explosives. As they try to get their man out of there, one starts running towards the shop yelling and pointing his gun while the camera quickly switches between several different viewpoints watching the scene unfold. Zooming in on the phone, we see a “call” made and seconds later the bomb goes off. Slow motion captures the reverberations of the force. The only sound now is that of the explosion mixed in with the heavy breathing of the suited soldier, until he hits the ground and the breathing stops.
Comparing this scene to the one where the soldiers are in a sniping battle against some of the enemy, we can notice a few things that Bigelow decided to put an emphasis on. First, the sniping sequence is long and drawn out, as indicated by the sun and shadows as well as the increasing amount of sand on the soldiers faces. This matches up with her decision to use longer cuts of each shot instead of the short quickfire ones we had in the opening sequence.
