I saw The Hurt Locker a while ago. It is very crafted, shot and told in an apparently neutral documentary style, suspenseful, heartbreaking, and entertaining.
But it isn’t neutral of course.
The story may seem free of ideology. It may seem that the author and director missed an opportunity for commentary or including a message. And it is exactly in that neutrality the message lies. War is meaningless as experienced from the point of view of the soldiers, and especially this war.