Single Narrative

Like troops on the march, this narrative walks a straight line. Since almost everything we see takes place in Iraq and we're following the single storyline of Will's introduction to Bravo Company's EOD team, there's not a lot of reason for the story to jump around or get funky. It's pretty linear stuff.

That said, we should probably mention that it's slightly unexpected when, toward the end, the movie jumps right from Iraq to the cereal aisle of an American grocery store. There's no "yay, we made it through our tour!" moment, no basking in Bravo Company's safe departure from Iraq...basically, there's no chance to adjust to the idea that the Bravos are leaving, or have left.

The whole non-transition is a brilliant choice on Bigelow's part since it kind of mirrors what Will seems to be going through. Will wanders the grocery store looking puzzled. He's a fish out of water, and we get the sense that he's had trouble going from being in a war one day to cruising for Cap'n Crunch a few days later.

Other than that jump, though, we do get a pretty straightforward narrative.