How one of Kathryn Bigelow’s favourite movies inspired her greatest triumph
Among the most celebrated action filmmakers out there, American auteur Kathryn Bigelow has established herself as a major presence in the contemporary landscape. Ranging from innovative genre films like the 1995 cyberpunk thriller Strange Days to the acclaimed action feature Zero Dark Thirty, Bigelow’s oeuvre has delighted fans all over the world who have repeatedly been awed by her grand cinematic visions over the years.
During a conversation with Rotten Tomatoes, Bigelow elaborated on the cinematic masterpieces that have shaped her journey and have proven to be constant sources of inspiration. Citing the depiction of action and violence in Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch and Martin Scorsese’s unparalleled portrayal of the underworld in Mean Streets, the Point Break director has incorporated lessons from an eclectic mixture of influences.
However, there’s one particular gem that continues to capture her imagination, unlike anything else she has ever seen. That film is David Lean’s magnum opus Lawrence of Arabia, the inimitable epic that has inspired countless directors’ passion for cinema, ranging from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas to Stanley Kubrick and Brian De Palma. According to Bigelow, this is the masterpiece that she always tries to recreate in her works.
Bigelow began: “No list would be complete without Lawrence of Arabia. Again, I’m constantly looking at that film for its sheer bravado, magnificence, scale, scope, and having just shot [The Hurt Locker] in Jordan in the summer of 2007, I visited Wadi Rum, which is the desert in which they shot Lawrence of Arabia, just about two hours outside of Amman. And it’s in the middle of the desert, to which David Lean brought — and this is in the ’60s — arc lights and a whole production.”
While talking about the influence of the movie on her own work, she added: “If you see this desert, first of all, it’s gorgeous, it’s beautiful. But it’s a very forbidding landscape, not one you would imagine would be very film-friendly; these beautiful, magnificent, extraordinary kind of red rock buttes that rise out of this red sand… I think Lawrence of Arabia brought us to Jordan and made that the location of choice for The Hurt Locker.”
The Hurt Locker is probably Bigelow’s most well-known work since it earned her major Academy Awards such as ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Picture’. The 2008 war thriller examines how war facilitates the breakdown of the human psyche, studying the events of the war in Iraq. While the subject matter is completely different, Bigelow drew courage from Lean’s achievements in Lawrence of Arabia to push her own project to the next level.
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