Kathryn Bigelow’s favourite director of all time: “I don’t think I can even identify a particular film”
Regardless of the perceptions around the notion of an ‘action film’, Kathryn Bigelow has fleshed out and redefined it to bring the genre much-needed depth, and has thus been championed as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time.
Her early features, such as Blue Steel and Point Break, challenged traditional gender roles and explored complex ethical debates, all while delivering rip-roaring setpieces, while in recent years, Bigelow has invested time and research into the United States military to make largely lauded war dramas like The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, and House of Dynamite, earning record-breaking awards in the process.
When looking at how she has constructed her career, it’s clear that she puts a greater emphasis on quality filmmaking, as opposed to spectacle and special effects, which is what action films are mostly thought of as. While advancements in computer-generated imagery or other elements of technical wizardry may make a film stand out at the time of its release, it’s the incorporation of suspense and intrigue that has made Bigelow’s work hold up, and thus, unsurprisingly, she told Rotten Tomatoes that she drew inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock, the filmmaker known as ‘The Master of Suspense’.
As would be the case for many film fans, Bigelow had a hard time identifying a single favourite of Hitchcock’s work, with the slasher classic Psycho, animal attack thriller The Birds, murder mystery Rear Window, and existentialist drama Vertigo all masterpieces that she admitted to admiring; however, she also cited some of his earliest work, including the 1930 silent film Murder!, as being underrated and worthy of reconsideration.
“It’s a silent film, but it’s Hitchcock,” she said, “All of his signatures, all the signifiers, everything we’ve come to know and love about Hitchcock, they’re all in play”.
Hitchcock might be best known for his run in Hollywood, but one of the primary reasons why he’s such a widely celebrated director is the longevity of his career, which began in the 1920s with The Lodger, with each film produced on a low budget and with minimal production values, and Murder! one of the many films he made that was loosely based on a stage play.
Adapting a stage play can be difficult, as it is impossible for a film to completely capture the experience of live theatre, but Hitchcock was savvy in showing the type of perspective and suspense that an audience wouldn’t be exposed to while sitting in their seats. Murder! may not have the reputation that Rebecca, To Catch a Thief, or some of his other Hollywood films do, but in Bigelow’s eyes, it’s just as important to his legacy.
Her affinity for Murder! is interesting, as she is also a director who has many under-loved films, such that her submarine thriller K-19: The Widowmaker was a historic box office bomb that landed her in ‘director’s jail’ for many years before she mounted a comeback with The Hurt Locker. However, the former has since earned more positive notes in recent years, particularly because of the authenticity with which she depicted military procedure and combat.
Although Bigelow has other films like A House of Dynamite and Detroit that were also met with controversy and criticism when they first debuted, it’s possible that they will experience similar reconsiderations and resurgence over the years. Hitchcock likely wouldn’t have thought that Murder! would have ended up inspiring one of today’s most exciting directors, as predicting what films are remembered is no easy task, and Bigelow has a long career ahead of her to make more memorable moments.
