“The Hurt Locker” Wins Oscar For Best Picture. “Avatar” Gets Snubbed

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences selected “The Hurt Locker” as the Best Picture for 2010. The movie is about a U.S. Army bomb technician who lives for the adrenaline of being able to defuse bombs in what is supposedly the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The film was shot in Jordan.

The movie also won 7 other Oscars, including Best Director.

“Avatar” had a good chance and was expected by many to win the Oscar for Best Picture. But the movie — the highest grossing of all time — only won 3 Oscars, including Best Visual Effects.

“Avatar” was the opposite of what “The Hurt Locker” is about. It focuses on the struggles of indigenous inhabitants of the moon “Pandorum” who fight to preserve their land.

Many progressives liked “Avatar” because of it’s environmental message. Yet, a more violent film, “The Hurt Locker” managed to beat it.

“The Hurt Locker” was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who also directed the 1991 movie, “Point Break” starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. Her win as Best Director also makes her the first female to receive such an award. She was also once married to James Cameron, who directed “Avatar.”

Another movie that progressives were rooting for was “Food Inc.” The documentary exposes who is behind the junk that Americans eat. “Food Inc.” was nominated for Best Feature Documentary, but it lost over “The Cove,” a documentary about dolphins.

Another upset, and a source of disappointment for most of our editorial staff at The News Junkie Post, was the fact that the Academy of Motion Picture members failed to give some well deserved attention to the film ” District 9″ which was nominated in the best picture and best adapted screenplay categories. Regardless, “District 9” is likely, in due time, to become a classic despite its snubbing by the Academy.

There is a great irony about the win of “The Hurt Locker” over “Avatar”. As Americans are dealing with the permanent anxiety and stress created by the wars in Iraq (the topic of Kathryn Bigelow’s film) and Afghanistan, and as the Obama administration is trying to get the US troops out of Iraq; more members of the Academy decided to vote for a film dragging us back to Iraq as opposed to one, “Avatar”, which despite it flows has a soulful uplifting message taking us to a better place. One would wonder if a lot of Academy members suffer from second hand Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Editor’s Note: Gilbert Mercier contributed to this story. Please follow The News Junkie Post on Twitter.