In a summer filled with justifiable acclaim for “Inglourious Basterds,” another war movie snuck onto the scene and captured audiences with an almost surreal attention to detail rather than with a clever rewrite of history.

Written by American journalist Mark Boal, the script for “The Hurt Locker” is based on stories from his time covering a bomb squad in Iraq. Jeremy Renner (“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” “28 Weeks Later”) leads the film’s fictionalized diffusing team with a stunning performance as Sergeant First Class William James, a bomb-man with a death wish.

The plot, essentially composed of almost journalistic vignettes, traces the ups and downs of everyday soldier life. Even the most banal serves as a suspenseful contrast to ticking bombs and explosions. When James confuses a dead boy’s bomb-strapped body for the young Iraqi kid he’d befriended, his reaction is both sincere and destructive—like no shortage of other situations in Iraq. The movement from the commonplace to the unbelievable creates a surreality similar to that of “Apocalypse Now.” In one scene, a soldier almost annoyingly complains about his duty; immediately after, he is forced to wipe fresh blood from bullets so they can be fired. The effect of such shifts is not only urgency, but a kind of dark humor.

Though it may be hard to decide where “Hurt Locker” fits into the canon of war cinema, it is the most gripping American attempt at the genre since “Saving Private Ryan” and easily the best film to date made on the current war in Iraq.

A large part of its success lies in the fact that it doesn’t proselytize. Unlike previous Iraq War films like “Stop-Loss,” which patronizes viewers with takeaways they already agree with, “Hurt Locker” disguises its message with subtlety, focusing on the difficult lives of soldiers and culture clash rather than anything as distant as politics or presidents.

Renner’s portrayal of a bomb-diffusing, cigarette-smoking madman is perhaps the best male performance of 2009. The rest of his team includes characters played by Anthonie Mackie and Brian Geraghty, the latter essentially reprising his deer-in-the-headlights role in “Jarhead.” Ralph Fiennes and David Morse also turn in amusing cameo roles.

The biggest round of applause, though, should be reserved for director Kathryn Bigelow (“Strange Days,” “Blue Steel”), who conducts her scenes with almost scientific precision.

One 10-minute sniper standoff in particular showcases Bigelow’s deft mastery of timing. The gap between the bullet’s crack and its impact creates a moment of suspended time, leaving the viewer hovering in a tense area between cause and effect. This moment of uncertainty provides an adrenaline rush for both the audience and Sgt. James, a testament to the subtlety of the film’s emotional power.

—Staff writer Andrew F. Nunnelly can be reached at nunnelly@fas.harvard.edu.