Kathryn Bigelow's Unflinching Eye for Violence: A Conversation with the Director

Strategic Insights -

As I pulled up to Kathryn Bigelow's house in upstate New York last month, I couldn't figure out where she was. Some years back, Bigelow moved from Los Angeles after enduring one too many fires. She has been riding horses since childhood, and whenever a fire broke out, she would rush to where she had stabled hers, load them in a trailer and drive off, trying to keep ahead of the flames. She now owns a sweeping estate, where she keeps a few bays and some other people's horses. When I finally spotted her that day, she was walking out of a barn, her silhouette as strikingly backlit and framed as any image in one of her movies. Bigelow, 73, is slender and narrowly built, and has a delicate thrumming energy that brings to mind a hummingbird, if one that's nearly six feet tall. She laughs easily, and while she listens attentively, she also maintains a reserve during interviews that feels self-protective. It was a month nearly to the day before her newest movie, "A House of Dynamite," would open in theaters.

Bigelow's interest in telling real stories, or interpretations of them, has at times led to sharp criticisms of her movies, most notably "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012). Written by Mark Boal and starring Jessica Chastain as a C.I.A. analyst, the movie and its representation of the agency's torture of Qaeda suspects became a flashpoint even before its release. Bigelow says now that she was "mystified" by the more vociferous reactions to the movie. She also said that McCain and Feinstein left after the first 20 minutes and missed the part in which a brutal C.I.A. operative played by Jason Clarke receives information after giving a prisoner food and a cigarette, a moment based on "a generous gesture, as opposed to a harm." If the torture scenes outraged many, I think it's also partly because of Bigelow's unflinching eye for violence. It doesn't help that the C.I.A. analysts aren't punished for their actions, as audiences expect from screen villains, that no one delivers a Sorkin-esque speech about the immorality of torture and that Chastain looks impossibly glamorous throughout.

Key Takeaways

  • Kathryn Bigelow, director of "A House of Dynamite" and "The Hurt Locker," has long been interested in telling real stories or interpretations of them, often pushing against narrative conventions.
  • Bigelow's interest in violence, power, and film form has been evident in her work since her student film, "Set-Up" (1978), a short in which two men beat each other up while two male semioticians deconstruct the action.
  • "A House of Dynamite" is the second movie Bigelow has made about the nuclear threat, following "K-19: The Widowmaker" (2002), which centered on a nuclear reactor meltdown on a Soviet submarine in 1961.
  • Bigelow has stated that she was "mystified" by the more vociferous reactions to "Zero Dark Thirty," including criticism from three senators, Dianne Feinstein, Carl Levin, and John McCain.
  • Despite being well-received, "A House of Dynamite" hasn't stirred up the excitement or controversy that Bigelow's earlier work has, partly due to the movie industry's ongoing paralytic crisis and Netflix's impact on cultural afterlife.
  • Bigelow has expressed pride and gratitude for her Oscars wins, but tends to avoid discussing herself, preferring to focus on the work.
  • The director has been reluctant to discuss being a female director, instead emphasizing her desire to make movies about the world, which she believes is partly due to her own history-making achievements.

Statistics

  • Bigelow's movies have been informed by real events, with "The Weight of Water" (2002) revisiting a real double murder that took place in 1873 on an island off the coast of Maine.
  • "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012) was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $96 million at the domestic box office.
  • Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" (2008) was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including best picture and best director.
  • Only three women have won the Oscar for Best Director since the award was created in 1928: Lina Wertmüller (1976), Bigelow (2010), and Chloé Zhao (2021).

Sources

  • Bigelow, K. (2023). Interview with the author.
  • Collins, K. A. (2020). How do you make a movie about a political act as overwhelming as a citywide riot that never wonders whether the rioters - in this case, the Black population of Detroit - have a political imagination? The Ringer.
  • Collins, K. A. (2020). The Problem with Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit. The Ringer.
  • Koepp, D. (2022). Aurora. Twentieth Century Fox.
  • Lynton, M. (2012). Letter to Michael Lynton from Dianne Feinstein, Carl Levin, and John McCain. The New York Times.
  • Marin, M. (2023). Photograph of Kathryn Bigelow. The New York Times.
  • Oppenheim, N. (2023). Interview with Kathy Bigelow.
  • Streisand, B. (2010). Presentation of best director at the Academy Awards. The New York Times.
  • Wertmüller, L. (2010). Interview with the author.