Director’s Chair Introduction: Kathryn Bigelow

by Tony Cogan · June 28, 2016 · Director's Chair · No Comments

Kathryn_Bigelow_by_David_ShankboneDeadline: July 30th 2016

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Hello everyone, it’s once again time to announce the person in the seat for this months Directors Chair. In the 3 months I have been doing this feature, I have featured only male directors, I think it’s past time that I included some women on here. Furthermore, the past two features I’ve done have been for relatively obscure directors so it’s time to go back to the mainstream and to that end, I think the best way to go is with the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow. Now to be perfectly honest, I’m not the biggest fan of Bigelow’s most popular film (at least in terms of public consciousness) Point Break. I find it to be overly silly and melodramatic, of course it didn’t help that my introduction to Point Break was seeing a clip of it used in Hot Fuzz. The more films I’ve seen of hers though, the more I appreciate just how talented a director Bigelow is, particularly with her most recent films, Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker, both of which are fascinating looks at the psyches of people involved in the War on Terror, on the ground and behind the scenes and the way in which they probably can never recover from war, their lives completely consumed by what they do and feeling unable to relate to anyone else as they don’t have the same experiences. The moral complexity of these two films are what made me a fan of Bigelow’s and it’s why I am getting really excited for her upcoming film about the Detroit Riots starring John Boyega.

With my own history with Bigelow out of the way, it’s once again time for the rules. I will accept any piece you have written about the films of Kathryn Bigelow (be it review, retrospective or podcast, ones written a while ago or pieces written specifically for this feature), they are to be sent to [email protected] and the deadline for submissions is July 30th. For anyone who needs a reminder, the films that you can cover this month are:

  • The Loveless
  • Near Dark
  • Blue Steel
  • Point Break
  • Strange Days
  • The Weight of Water
  • K-19: The Widowmaker
  • The Hurt Locker
  • Zero Dark Thirty

I look forward to receiving your posts on the works of Bigelow. Come back on July 31st when the roundup of the posts I receive will be released.