Directors We Love: Kathryn Bigelow

How would you go about programming a weeklong retrospective of Kathryn Bigelow double features? We could put the vampire movie with the futuristic sci-fi movie, and then maybe the skydiving/bankrobber movie with the biker movie. Let's see... then we could put the war movie with the submarine movie, but then the time-switching murder story would have to go with the lady cop movie. Hmm. Let me start over...

Or rather, let me just take a minute to gush about one of my favorite directors, who just now seems to be getting the praise she has long deserved for her current movie The Hurt Locker. She began her career by attending the San Francisco Art Institute and studying painting, which slowly segued into film. Her bold, painterly images can be seen to this day, throughout all her work. She has taken a tough, genre approach to filmmaking, following in the footsteps of such ultra-masculine directors as Howard Hawks, Samuel Fuller and Don Siegel. But to her, she's not really doing anything unusual; she's just making the kinds of films she wants to make.

Unfortunately, few of her movies have ever shown any kind of financial success, so she's not exactly in good standing with the studio heads. She's strikingly beautiful in person, and also whip-smart, a combination that, in meetings, could work both for and against her. On the plus side, some of her films have generated passionate cult followings, including Near Dark, Strange Days and especially Point Break, which has a fervent fan club worthy of Rocky Horror.

Over the years, I have often found myself alone in defending her works, and when I saw how great The Hurt Locker was -- it's currently my pick for the year's best film, though there's still a few months left to go -- I was convinced I'd have to go through the same thing again. But happily, everyone seems to like it as much as I do. Probably that has something to do with the subject matter as much as with her talent and skill, but nonetheless, she's getting a lot of good buzz at the moment, so it's a great time to go back and look at her other films.

The Loveless (1982)
I confess I haven't yet seen this stylish biker film, co-directed with Monty Montgomery, but it did introduce the world to Bigelow, as well as to an intense young actor called Willem Dafoe.

Near Dark (1987)
I proudly count this among my personal top 100 favorite films. I've always been mesmerized at its vivid moods and tones, including the wide-open desert sky, dotted with a million stars, smashed up against a gore-slathered biker bar, and a roving van with aluminum foil plastered all over the windows. And the adorable, dewy Jenny Wright plays "Mae," my favorite vampire in celluloid history. Some horror fans balk at the ending, but I didn't mind; I see it as romance triumphing. Trivia: the word "vampire" is never spoken once.

Blue Steel (1990)
Of all Bigelow's films, this one is probably the most difficult to defend; Jamie Lee Curtis plays a rookie cop who foils a convenience store robbery (while her male partner is in the can), but loses track of the culprit's gun when a snaky broker (Ron Silver) snatches it, unseen, from the crime scene. He starts to seduce her by day, while going on a killing spree at night -- using the lost gun. The film didn't exactly get any glowing reviews or much notice, but it's an action film in which you can really feel the impact.

Point Break (1991)
It's a huge cult sensation now, but I think this one was a tough sell when it was new. It almost sounds like a parody of itself: Keanu Reeves stars as a rookie FBI agent named "Johnny Utah," who goes undercover in the surfing community. He suspects a gang of surfers (led by Patrick Swayze) to be notorious bank robbers that do their jobs while wearing ex-president masks. Oh, and there's some skydiving too. It's rough-and-tumble filmmaking, but with a hint of the metaphysical as well.

Strange Days (1995)
This was Bigelow's biggest flop; the film cost about $42 million -- much of which went into the stunning production design -- and grossed about $7 million. It also has a real mean streak, which arguably has softened somewhat over the years. And it has enough great ideas and enough visual scope to make it worth seeking out. Set in 1999, the world is on the brink of collapse, with brutal, heightened violence ruling the streets of Los Angeles. The story involves Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes), who traffics in illegal virtual reality videos. Lenny normally deals in sex tapes, but finds himself in trouble when a "snuff film" comes into his possession. Angela Bassett and Juliette Lewis play the women in his life.

The Weight of Water (2000)
Most people either hated or ignored this complex two-part murder story. Not even Elizabeth Hurley's nude scene convinced ticket buyers. The first part is set in 1873, where a woman (Sarah Polley) deals with some domestic dramas and then becomes the only survivor of a killer's rampage. In the present, a photographer (Catherine McCormack) tries to find out what happened. Some modern-day domestic dramas unfold with her husband (Sean Penn), his brother (Josh Lucas) and his brother's sexy girlfriend (Hurley). It requires some work, but it's brilliant. Lionsgate sat on it for two years before releasing it in the fall of 2002.

K-19: The Widow-Maker (2002)
I think viewers had trouble with Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson speaking in Russian accents for this expensive flop. They play, respectively, the Captain and demoted officer of a flagship Russian sub. Of course, there's constant fighting among the crew, but things get worse when a missile test goes wrong and a nuclear explosion threatens to blow up the sub and start WWIII. Again, it's Bigelow's technical prowess -- the way she maneuvers the camera in the tight quarters -- and her pure, animal intensity that save this.

The Hurt Locker (2009)
This is a great film, but you shouldn't go see it thinking of it as a "great film," something that's dusty and dull. Think of it as a great popcorn film. Better still, watch one of Bigelow's other films first and make a double feature of it.