Kathryn Bigelow's directing style?
Asked by
Haroot (
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March 19th, 2010
So as you may know Kathryn Bigelow won the Academy Award for best director and her film “The Hurt Locker” won best picture.
So I’m not fairly familiar with her work so I decided to take a look back at her films. “Near Dark,” “Point Break,” and “Strange Days.”
The thing that has me is that I can’t really place my finger on what makes her films so unique. Don’t get me wrong, I know something is there, just not sure what. It’s especially because “The Hurt Locker” doesn’t seem to have the same characteristics that I’ve noticed.
The two things that seem to show the most are insecure/underpowered lead male roles being helped by strong female supporting characters, and the blend of topics you don’t normally place together. (vampires and cowboys, surfers and cops, etc…)
How would you describe her directing style?
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8 Answers
I like KB’s films, but I felt like she didn’t do anything in the hurt locker that any other director wouldn’t have done. She is a solid director for hire and that is what she will continue to be, Oscar or not. James Cameron changed film forever, so how is he not the best director of the year? I get the political reason’s for KB’s win (how many female directors are there that are good enough to be nominated?) but history will remember it as a slight to Avatar. I hope to see her next film, but she isn’t a auteur in the traditional sense.
I haven’t seen her other films but Hurt Locker had a sense of gritty reality and tension that impressed me; I felt I learned more about Iraq by watching that film then the (total neglect) of the war by the mainstream media in the last seven years. And Avatar, while technically brillaint, seemed like The Land that Time Forgot meets The Transformers to me.
Avatar is overrated. I still think it is Dances with Smurfs.
The Hurt Locker was the best movie of last year, and she had a no-nonsense directing style, that allowed small stories to mix in a large one.
Look at a lot of Martin Scorsese’s films. He often throws flourish in places that don’t need it. It is distracting, and diminishes the film. His best films are the ones he doesn’t do that in.
@filmfann I have been dining out on your Dances with Smurfs quip for weeks. Thanks!
@janbb I would like to take credit for that, but it was actually the name of a South Park episode.
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