MANILA, Philippines?Up till Oscars day last March 8, Kathryn Bigelow was largely a ?who?s that?? entity in many film viewers? estimation. Her biggest claim to fame appeared to be the fact that she was once married to ?Titanic? director James Cameron.
Well, that was last week. Today, Bigelow is the filmmaker of the year, having roundly and soundly trounced ex-hubby Cameron to win the Best Director Oscar for her work on the relatively small and unheralded film, ?The Hurt Locker.?
More resoundingly, the ?little film that could? romped off with the Best Picture plum, making Cameron?s big-budget ?Avatar? an also-ran.
Best of all, Bigelow made movie history by becoming the first woman to win a Best Director Oscar. In the past, only three women (Jane Campion, Lina Wertmuller, Sofia Coppola) have been nominated for the award, so Bigelow?s achievement is truly monumental and worth celebrating.
The skinny
What is it about Kathryn Bigelow that has enabled her to do what scores of other women directors have stopped short of achieving? Here?s the skinny on the film industry?s new Queen of the World:
Bigelow literally towers over many of her peers at a stunning 5?11,? and she?s beauty-queen lovely, to boot.
Big surprise: She?s a very talented painter who spent two years at the San Francisco Art Institute. So, how did she end up in the movies? She didn?t go the starlet route, she studied film theory and criticism in Columbia University?s graduate school.
Her first short film, ?The Set-Up? (1978) tackled the issue of violence. In 1982, she co-directed (with Morty Montgomery) her first full-length feature, a biker film titled ?The Loveless.?
Reviewers didn?t like it much, characterizing it as ?an uneven homage? to the ?Wild One,? but lauded it for being ?visually stunning, like an Edward Hopper painting of the 1950s.?
Next, she megged ?Near Dark? (1987), which she co-scripted with Eric Red, who also co-wrote her 1990 film, ?Blue Steel,? which starred Jamie Lee Curtis as a rookie police officer who is stalked by a psychopathic killer (Ron Silver).
In 1991, Bigelow directed Keanu Reeves in ?Point Break,? where he was cast as an FBI agent who poses as a surfer to catch a group of surfing robbers led by Patrick Swayze.
?Blue Steel? was reviled by reviewers, one of whom scathingly dismissed it as ?laughably ludicrous.? Was this any way to treat a future Best Director awardee? Well, more spectacular recoveries have been witnessed in the biz, so Bigelow?s truly big comeback should inspire other filmmakers to stick to their guns, improve their work and never give up.
What about ?Point Break?? It?s heartening to note that it fared better. A review noted that its ?mind-numbing? plot was ?redeemed by great surfing and skydiving scenes and Bigelow?s assured, fast-moving direction.?
Bigelow?s 1995 film, ?Strange Days,? was written and produced by her ex-husband, James Cameron. Their marriage may not have survived the test of time, but their artistic collaboration appears to be undamaged.
?The Weight of Water? (2000) is a portrait of two women trapped in suffocating relationships. In 2002, Bigelow directed ?K-19: The Widowmaker,? about a group of men led by Harrison Ford aboard the Soviet Union?s first nuclear-powered submarine. Alas, the film was a big flop?and it would take seven long years before Bigelow would be able to meg her next film which, happily, has turned out to be the triumphant ?The Hurt Locker?!
Finally, after a decidedly roller-coaster career, Kathryn Bigelow has finally come into her own as a director?the best in the biz!
