Kathryn Bigelow: Bad Ass Director

Forget Nora Ephron and Penny Marshall and their cheesy chick flicks. If you want to see a female director kick ass, watch just about anything directed by Kathryn Bigelow. In a career that has spanned more than two decades, she has consistently resisted studio pressure to deliver the same sweet-as-pie rom-coms as her fellow double-X chromosome holders and has instead exercised her cinematic cojones in the testosterone-charged sphere of action adventure.

Throughout her career Kathryn Bigelow has followed in the footsteps of such uber-masculine directors as Howard Hawks, Samuel Fuller, and Sergio Leone, and has delivered movies exploding with action and intensity. (Even though she’s *gasp* a woman). Her films are powerful tools that tend to toy with the mind, even as they send shockwaves through the body.

With films like Point Break and The Hurt Locker, Bigelow has made it something of a mission to explore primarily male subcultures that revolve around ceremonial aggression. Think a woman can’t get into the mind of a man? Check out her oeuvre. She frequently examines how the rush of adrenaline that comes with danger can become a thrilling and often lethal addiction within these largely male groups.

Her film career got going in the 80s with The Loveless (1982), Near Dark (1987), and Blue Steel (1989). It was Near Dark that really got people’s attention and won over the critics. It was a stylish and brutal flick that was high on action and intensity. To this day it is considered one of the best vampire films ever made.

Strange Days is one of the best movies you've never seen.

The 90s also brought mixed reviews. With Point Break (1991) she proved that she could hold her own in the male-dominated genre of action-suspense. As was the norm for her films, reviews for the Patrick Swayze/Keanu Reeves vehicle were mixed, but it went on to gain a huge cult following. (Thanks in no small part to one of Reeves’ most quotable lines to date – “I am an FBI agent!”) 1995’s Strange Days was a pretty big financial disappointment, but it did win over the critics. The dystopian sci-fi movie was a financial disaster that flopped at the box office but like with most of her movies, it too soon garnered cult status.

Unfortunately her next film, The Weight of Water (2000) was another disappointment and it was followed in 2002 by K-19: The Widow-Maker that – you guessed it – tanked. Despite a high-profile cast, action-packed storyline and amazing attention to detail, the film failed to impress.

Now you might be thinking that this resume is not that of a director who “kicks ass” but I defy anyone with doubts to watch any of these movies and not be impressed by the visual assault and graphic, artistic images you’re confronted with. And if you’re still not impressed, there’s one more. 2009’s The Hurt Locker has received almost universal acclaim and can be considered her best film to date – a masterpiece if you will. Intense, riveting, and packed with a fistful of adrenaline, The Hurt Locker is an explosive war epic that tells its story using every visual, aural and sensory element filmmaking has to offer.

Even though few of her movies have ever managed to achieve any kind of big financial success, they still manage to deliver volatile action and get the blood pumping. And most of them have generated passionate cult followings.

While Kathryn Bigelow is known as a great female director of action films, it’s a title that isn’t really warranted. Because when it comes down to it, it doesn’t really matter what gender a movie’s director is. She’s proved that. All it really does is give critics and writers (this one included) a hook for their articles. Hopefully the day will come soon when she’s not referred to as a great female director, but a great filmmaker. Because the fact is, she makes a hell of an action movie, and to put it bluntly, the woman’s got balls.