Kathryn Bigelow and The Hurt Locker

I would not call Kathryn Bigelow a maverick; I would, however, tag her as a genius. The opening scene of the movie, The Hurt Locker, ends with Staff Sergeant Thompson being killed in a bomb explosion, which is a combination of suspense and danger. The ending shot is that of Sergeant First Class William James looking towards the horizon and marching into premises unknown—a case of suspense, as the viewer is left to wonder what might be James’ luck in the next 365 days. In short, the movie starts and ends with elements of suspense, danger and a little bit of thrill, all signatures of an action movie. Bigelow does not do away with the conventions of action film making; she merely modifies them. Although she delves into the mind of her protagonist, shows the emotions and feelings of the veterans, and cuts back on the gore of war, she does not deviate from the train of thought that action-movie makers are supposed to ensure both the fixation of the audience to the screen, and the juxtaposition of thrill, danger, suspense and explosions.

Another stereotypical feature of action movies is the characterization of James; he is at first projected to be a hero, but one later finds out that he is actually an action-junkie. This is characteristic of all action movies’ protagonists and actors, and the reason they are all willing to jump into fast moving cars, step into burning fires and partake in the most dangerous events possible; one needs a high level of testosterone in order to carry such events out. James is the regular action hero, meant to flush out the bad guys and cripple the antagonist. Now even though there is no concrete antagonist per-say in the movie, James does diffuse quite a lot of bombs, thwarting the actions of the Iraq leaders and does not die in the process.

Although The Hurt Locker at first might be viewed as a classic action movie, Bigelow does put a signature mark on the movie as a whole. Perhaps the much embraced difference is because of her gender or perhaps not. Whichever way one may fall in the above argument, one cannot deny the fact that the reason the movie is refreshing is because of differences in Bigelow’s approach to action movie making: the movie is not filled with car chasing, is not gore-filled, and not war glorifying or propagating. It is not a secret that action movies are synonymous to numerous car chasing: robbers fleeing from the cops, cops chasing the thief, teenagers trying to beat the street car racing record, or a Humvee transporting a wounded solider back to the base. Whatever the story-line, there is always a car chasing scene in an action flick. However, there is no car chasing scene in The Hurt Locker. In fact, the only time there is a chasing, it is done on foot when James riles JT Sanborn and Owen Eldridge, in order to investigate the night bombing and Owen ends up being kidnapped and shot in the aftermath.

Another exciting aspect is that the movie is gore free. There are no dismembered bodies, no open wounds, no unnecessary blood and dead bodies. The only time a dead body, blood and all, is shown is when James thinks that it is Beckham on the dissecting table. The body thought to be Beckham was shown because Bigelow wanted to emphasize the fact that James has a soft spot for Beckham, and not because it is the norm of an action movie. I believe that if that scene was not important or the catalyst for the climax, it might not have been shot i.e. the scenes were important in the development of the story and not to validate the fact that there is a war going on. And the other time blood was seen was during the shower scene when James was grieving on the fact that he almost killed his squad. These two incidents are crucial because they showed the soft side to James.

Ultimately, one can see that although Bigelow employed the use of the existing conventions. She, however, modified some conventions; thereby creating a unique piece and one that carries her directing signature. She is also able to sustain the audience’s attention throughout the film, by not only creating tension but also relieving such tension through the use of humor. However, there is no single moment in the movie where a viewer can heave a breath of relieve as the movie’s intensity is continuous. To say that Bigelow is a genius is definitely not an understatement.