Hurt Locker – Why is war a Drug?

There are some movies which do not make much sense unless you see the first scene of the movie. One example is 'Saving Private Ryan'. When I first saw the movie, I missed the first 10 minutes and the rest of the movie seemed very depressingly violent. I wondered why folks were so appreciative of the movie. The second time I saw the movie, I started at the very beginning where the old Private Ryan visits the grave of his saviors, and then the gory and the violence took a new 'meaning'.

“Lock Hunter” is as violent, gory and real, but different in that this war movie will not make sense until the last scene of the movie. The movie begins with the tag line ‘War is Drug’. This tag line gives a context for you to help make sense of the rest of the impassioned depiction of mindless violence. But the tag line does not answer the question 'why man needs that ‘war drug’ in the first place?' The last scene gives the answer. 

The movie starts with a bomb defusing operation that goes south, leaving the bomb defuser dead. He is replaced by a guy with great expertise who has a flamboyant, even daringly flippant way of defusing bombs. He does not give a damn about taking inordinate risks or about dying. One of his teammates asks him why he keeps doing what he does even though he knows that it is the roll of the dice every time he straps up his protective attire. He could die anytime. He replies, "I do not know". It gives an impression that this he is inexorably being drawn into war by something much deeper within him which he himself does not understand.

The pressing question in the mind of the movie viewer is, Why do some people love war so much even though they know that they could possibly die? Why does war have this power? Why is war a drug? And more importantly, why does man need that drug?

I believe the answer is at the end of the movie, when he is on a break and spending time with his one year old son who is playing with some toys. He is talking to his son… “You love playing with that... you love mama you love dada, you love your pajamas… you love everything. Don’t you? But you know what buddy… when you grow older some of the things that you love will not seem special any more, you’ll realize that ‘jack in the box’ is really a piece of tin and stuffed animal. Then there will be fewer things that you’ll really love. By the time you get to my age there will be only one or two things you’ll really love… to me I think it is one”. He is actually talking more to himself than his son.

In the very next scene he is back at Iraq defusing bombs with a gleam in his eye and the usual feistiness in his stride, as he walks strapped-up towards the next bomb. The heavy rock band music starts. The movie ends.

The quintessential truth of the poignant introspective dialogue that he has with is one year old is that as a man grows, his propensity to be satisfied by what life has to offer reduces. A young kid would be satisfied with a cookie. But a grown man may like a cookie, but that is not something that will satisfy him. He may need a jar of beer or a peg of wine. Even that may not satisfy him as much as it did in his teens when he first developed the taste for the stronger drinks. A yogi does meditation on a hill top and a hedge fund manager mints money sitting in his corner office. Both of them pursue what they think gives them satisfaction. Some people have sex because it gives them satisfaction. Some people watch TV because it gives them satisfaction. Some people got to war because it gives them satisfaction.

At that point, war becomes the drug. As for that matter anything can be a drug for the grown-ups, money, alcohol, sex (remember Woods), fame, books, TV, social service (self seeking), religiosity (without God) etc… Most people try different things at different stages in life seeking that which satisfies them. They are always looking for the next higher level of satisfaction. They are looking for something that is BIG enough which will satisfy them. If there is a God, then the only experience that can be BIG enough to satisfy man will be the experience of God. For, if God is indeed God, then there can be nothing that is more brilliant and beautiful and exciting and consequently more satisfying than Him.