Kathryn Bigelow Day at the ICA – Near Dark (1988) & The Hurt Locker (2010)
Kathryn Bigelow is almost unique in Hollywood – a woman who excels in action cinema. I recently claimed that Michael Mann is the finest action director working in the US today, after seeing The Hurt Locker this week I may just have to reassess that inaccurate assertion. I had something of a Bigelow day at the ICA by taking in a screening of one of my all time favourite horror movies (SPOILERS )Near Dark in the afternoon before returning to the venue after a spot of dinner to catch The Hurt Locker followed by a sober Q&A with the screenwriter and director of this astounding action film. It’s taken a few years but finally there is a film worthy of that contemptible conflict, you can safely ignore the woefully preachyLions For Lambs, irrelevant In The Valley Of Elah and safely ignore De Palma’s execrable Redacted, with The Hurt Locker we have an apolitical tale that lacerates through the nonsense to deliver an adrenaline powered, subtly layered commentary on the calamitous results of the West’s biggest foreign policy fuck-up since the Second World War.
But first some brief comments on Near Dark. Released in 1987 the film can be viewed as a loose sequel to Aliens released the year before given that it features Jenette Goldstein, Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton although this time they are the bad guys, the psychopathic blood guzzling vermin who prey throughout the fetid plains of the American mid-west. Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) is bewitched one hazy summer evening by the porcelain beauty of Mae (Jenny Wright), she ‘turns’ him with a infective nip to the neck, transforming the reluctant cowboy into her potential mate, a companion to endure the blighted eons together. Mae is part of a terrible family of vampires (a word never uttered in the film) headed by patriarch Jesse Hooker (Bishop), matriarch Diamond Back (Vasquez), elder brother Severn (Hudson) and Homer, the old man trapped in a child’s body whom you may remember from one of the great teen movie Rivers Edge. Any mention of that film demands a link to Crispin and Dennis.
As well as being visually terrific with those desolate, desaturated shots of Oklahoma and Nebraska the film has an outstanding score from Tangerine Dream, one of the cult favourite musical composers of the eighties. As well as ratcheting up the tension during the action scenes – the shoot-out at the hotel, the bar room massacre – the film has a solemn beauty emerging from the cinematography and score in a manner similar to Let The Right One In. It’s that combination I love, the bloody bar-room scene is one of my favourite sequences in horror cinema – yeah, yeah, I’m a sick fuck – but couple those visceral thrills with the haunting tonal scenes between the gut wrenching violence and you’ve got quite an experience which launches straight into Caleb’s nocturnal odyssey, I noticed its vigorous pacing for the first time whilst digesting it on the big screen.
The Hurt Locker follows the fortunes of a squad of three bomb disposal experts operating in the stifling heat of Baghdad, circa 2004. For an American action picture it champions an uncanny level of realism concerning the day to day threats that the squad encounters, an authenticity culled from screenwriter Mark Boals experience as a ’embed’ reporter during the Iraq War – he lived with these guys for a year in theatre. After their CO is killed during an assuredly tense pace-setting opening sequence Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner whom you may recall from ’28 Weeks Later) is deployed to head the Explosives Ordinate Disposal squad, a three man team comprising of relative unknowns Specialist Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) and Sergeant Sanborn (Anthony Mackie). James palpably gets off on the stress of the potentially terminal experiences his team suffers on a daily basis, channeling the constant fear into his work whilst circumventing traditional military operational procedures.
The films intense defusion sequences are pulverised into the narrative with brief snatches of characterisation to propel the tale forward, it’s shot in the ubiquitous nervous twitchy-cam but this actually suits the subject matter for a change, the officers fragmentary registering of information from all angles during an operation enabling them to assess and build a mental physical risk register which dictates how they will neutralise the ordinance. For each of the disposal sequences Bigelow had four camera teams shooting Super 16 mm stock with the intention to holistically cover each scenes events from their scattered locations. This works brilliantly for the spectator and the actors as they never know when they are on camera and therefore there is no mugging, no overacting, they effortlessly dissolve into each operation and approach each disposal mission realistically, grimly proceeding through entire sequences in real time under the blazing Jordanian sun where the film was shot. That’s a fantastic directorial approach. Scouring through a 200 to 1 shooting ratio Bigelow has forged some epic action sequences, the obvious IED’s luring in more men and equipment, more American assets to be the victim of deeply camouflaged additional explosives and concealed insurgent snipers. Bigelow cuts feverishly between the cinematic planes – from Sgt. James attempts to defuse the bombs in close up under lethal deadlines, to the support team frantically scanning the area for hostiles, to the minarets and rooftops of Baghdad where citizens and bystander loiter to observe proceedings, it’s impossible to assess who may be friend or foe. It all results in a cardiac inducing movie that best of all is terrifically entertaining and exciting, a tremendous achievement that demands repeat viewings.
Bigelow has been very sly with this one from a production standpoint. There’s a trio of cameos from three ‘stars’ – David Morse, Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pearce – which I’m sure was arranged to get the films modest budget secured, financers believing this would be a conventional star laden action picture that would ensure a return on their investment. All the attention is on the three relatively unknown leads which in turn tightens the thumb screws as there is no ‘oh he’s a star so he’s safe, he’s not going to die’ subliminal expectations from the audience with James, Eldrige and Sanborn under constant threat of extinction. It doesn’t get too repetitive – bomb discovered, bomb investigated, bomb defused, character scene, repeat – the films opens up a little when a sub-plot about a missing boy is followed up by James who violates the safe confines of the base – Camp Liberty – and embarks on a suicidal venture into the Baghdad suburbs. This is where Bigelow cunningly injects some subtle thematics, Sgt. James interactions with the shell-shocked, hostile and bewildered Iraq citizens serving as a quiet damnation on the wars entire purpose and results. As for the aforementioned best sniper sequence in the movies, well, there is of course quite a recent pedigree to surpass (4:07) but Bigelow equals it by taking a different approach, both opponents seem equally matched in a deadly sequence of tit for tat exchanges. SPOILERS – If you’re so inclined someones been naughty and uploaded the nail-biting sequence in HD onto YT here. It was shot by Barry Ackroyd who DP’d on The Wind That Shakes The Barley and United 93, both of which hold some curious thematic connections to The Hurt Locker on a number of levels – insurgency, terrorism, tension and fear.
Interview with Bigelow here. The Q&A outlined some of the points I’ve reproduced above in terms of the shooting style and approach to the material. It was quite a sober affair, given the films subject matter I’m not surprised although there are a few laughs in the movie to alleviate the tension. Being an ex-husband of James Cameron inevitably the Avatar question was raised – no she’s not seen any of it and she’s looking forward to it along with the rest of us (they remain good friends). She did drop a comment which I found very interesting, apparently the 3D developments are such that we won’t need those pesky glasses around the 2015 mark if the predictions of the R&D departments of the major studios are correct, if that’s true then the commercial desire to shift to 3D productions in order to combat piracy may well be redundant. I’m going to take another look at the initially disappointing Strange Days which should be interesting ten years after the millennium and The Weight Of Water which I haven’t seen yet and looks like quite a change of pace. My heart needs a rest, this might help….
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