“I like high impact movies.” And then some.
Kathryn Bigelow was here all along. She’d directed the ‘90s pop action masterpiece “Point Break,” given us the Western horror hybrid “Near Dark” and dazzled audiences with the dystopian sci-fi film, “Strange Days.” Bigelow was a name, but it really wasn’t until “The Hurt Locker” that Bigelow became a household name with a capital A auteur that all eyes laser-focused on. Oscars aside, she won Best Director and Best Picture for her harrowing Iraq War-set explosive ordinance disposal team movie, Bigelow would have likely shaken the industry with the picture regardless, its stress-inducing momentum put her “back on the map” after the seven year absence between films (her previous film, the muscular “K-19: The Widowmaker” was released in 2002). Awards didn’t hurt though. To this day, “The Hurt Locker” is the sole film by a female director to win in the Best Director and Best Picture categories (she even bested her ex-husband James Cameron for both awards vs. his “Avatar” goliath).
The distinction might not be one Bigelow cares for. “If there’s specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can’t change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies,” the filmmaker once said.
Bigelow will let you write the thinkpieces: she’s too busy making films. Many of those films are propulsive and adrenalized: she loves her high impact films. And recently, thanks to her successful, in-synch collaborations with screenwriter/journalist Mark Boal, her work has taken on a topical, relevant and lean and mean docu-drama style driven by facts and true-life stories. “Zero Dark Thirty” tracked the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden with military precision and the dark ops power of the film landed her on the cover of Time magazine. And while she eventually bailed on “True American” and “Triple Frontier,” both projects with Boal were set to be photojournalistic dramas chronicling post 9/11 events and notorious crime triangle in South America; Bigelow is seemingly drawn to projects with a contemporary, real-life electricity.
This magnetism is evidenced in her latest film, the period crime drama, “Detroit,” documenting the Algiers Motel incident during Detroit’s 1967 12th Street Riot. Starring John Boyega, Will Poulter, Algee Smith, Jason Mitchell, Anthony Mackie and many, many more, “Detroit” is a savage look at Detroit’s pent up frustration and anger in the late 1960s and the police brutality, racism and ugly dehumanizing of the citizens of the aggrieved city (read our review here). With “Detroit” already in theaters in limited release and the picture hitting wide this weekend, we thought now was the perfect time to laud and look at the illustrious career of Kathryn Bigelow.
“The Loveless” (1981)
In her cunning debut, Bigelow harkens back to the bikesploitation era with a film coated in leathered swagger and brimming with a masculine edge. “The Loveless” is definitely the most atmospheric of Bigelow’s back catalog, as it occupies a dreary frigidness sheathed in grime — much of it due to Willem Dafoe’s snake-like depiction of a cool, reserved and sexy drifter. Alongside Dafoe’s striking biker image, rustic diners and neon-lit bars bring Bigelow’s debut to the visual forefront, validating her as a cinematic visionary early on in her career. Artistically bold for a first film, this slow and pensive project breathes confidence with a sense of masculinity that defined most of her later work. While Bigelow parades a man’s affinity for daring, adrenaline-pumping endeavors in later films (“The Hurt Locker” and “Point Break”), her debut adopts the post-greaser, western nomadic archetype while echoing a James Dean-like quiet defiance and the mythical romanticism of the open road. With a story of bikers and rebellious subcultures, this unique and dark slice of early ’80s independent cinema trudges along with a darkness that many forget Bigelow is capable of pulling off. – KK