One “masterpiece” war film that’s won multiple Academy Awards has also been voted among the top 10 war movies of all time on Rotten Tomatoes. The intense 2008 film follows a group of elite soldiers deployed to Iraq as they undertake one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: disarming bombs.

The team grapples under their new sergeant, William James, who plunges his two subordinates into danger with his reckless decisions. Facing a constant threat of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), he causes friction between the soldiers as he throws them into the same line of danger.

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker has won multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and ranked tenth in Rotten Tomatoes’ list of the best war movies of all time, with an impressive 96% score from professional critics.

Its consensus describes it as “thus far the best of the recent dramatisations of the Iraq War”, which is well-acted, intensely shot, and an “action-filled war epic”.

One reviewer hailed it as “one of the finest war movies of all time that will find a home in history among the best of the best”.

They added: “[A] riveting, nail-biting, action-packed, tension-filled film that pounds the screen with jackhammering intensity. Powerful. Visceral.”

A second said it “blows away the competition”, by “switching effortlessly between passages of nerve-shredding suspense and ones of adrenaline-charged excitement”.

Reviewer Casimir Harlow wrote on for AVForums it was a “work of art, a masterpiece painted by a director who many will have come to respect for the classics she has given us.”

However, veterans have previously criticised the film for not portraying the true reality of war. Author Brandon Friedman, a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, wrote for VetVoice it was a “high-tension, well-made, action movie that will certainly keep most viewers on the edges of their seats”.

However, he added: “If you know anything about the Army, or about operations or life in Iraq, you’ll be so distracted by the nonsensical sequences and plot twists that it will ruin the movie for you. It certainly did for me.”

The movie is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.