Saw Hurt Locker last night on DVD. Liked it a lot. Definitely a lot of scenes where you feel like you're in the desert with those guys and riding around with them in the Humvee.
Good story
here about the director by Manohla Dargis:
Quote
KATHRYN BIGELOWS two-fisted win at the Academy Awards for best director and best film for The Hurt Locker didnt just punch through the American movie industrys seemingly shatterproof glass ceiling; it has also helped dismantle stereotypes about what types of films women can and should direct. It was historic, exhilarating, especially for women who make movies and women who watch movies, two groups that have been routinely ignored and underserved by an industry in which most films star men and are made for and by men. Its too early to know if this moment will be transformative but damn, it feels so good.
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It was a long time coming, as Ms. Bigelow suggested when she appeared on 60 Minutes on Feb. 28. Her appearance, for which she was interviewed by Lesley Stahl (Steve Kroft must have been busy), was a classic of its type. During the interview Ms. Bigelow explained to the apparently baffled Ms. Stahl the meaning of scopophilia, a significant word in feminist film theory, though Ms. Bigelow kept gender out of her definition (the desire to watch and identify with what youre watching). She insisted that there was no difference between what she and a male director might do, even as she also conceded that the journey for women, no matter what venue it is politics, business, film its, its a long journey.
Its instructive that she didnt say it had also been a hard journey, because that might have pegged Ms. Bigelow as a whiner, as in whiny woman. Unsurprisingly, she again had to share her few minutes with Mr. Cameron, whose name Ms. Stahl invoked within seconds of starting and not only because he had directed two of the largest hits in history, including Avatar. He was the ex-husband, a powerful director and a representation of male authority who could vet Ms. Bigelow. How sweet is this to be head to head with your ex-husband, Ms. Stahl asked. You couldnt have scripted it, Ms. Bigelow laughed. As she has these last months, she played it carefully. She seemed well-behaved.
Her cool has disturbed some, who have scrutinized Ms. Bigelow up and down, sometimes taking suspicious measure of her height and willowy frame, partly because these are the only personal parts of her that are accessible to nosy interviewers. Women in movies, both in front of and behind the camera, are expected to offer a lot more of themselves, from skin to confessions. All that Ms. Bigelow freely gives of herself for public consumption is intelligent conversation and her work. Her insistence on keeping the focus on her movies is a quiet yet profound form of rebellion. She might be a female director, but by refusing to accept that gendered designation or even engage with it she is asserting her right to be simply a director.
Right on man.
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter