Page 24 - FILM
P. 24
THE TIMES ®
AUSTRALIA
Kathryn Bigelow
Our 90s Action Movie Queen
By Cait Lyn Adamson
© Image Source
Before Kathryn Bigelow was kicking James Cameron’s butt at the Oscars and churning out
two of the most hard hitting and well acclaimed war movies in the last fve years (The Hurt
Locker, Zero Dark Thirty ), she was a 90s era directorial gem who got her start directing
some of the strangest and classically quintessential action movies of the decade.
Bigelow grew up in California and was raised by a librarian mother and a factory working
father. Artistically her roots are in painting, she studied at the San Francisco Institute of
Art where she received her BA and further pursued her artistry in New York City when she
received the Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. During her time
in New York City Bigelow was exposed to artists from all walks of life – fellow painters,
flmmakers and musicians. Phillip Glass, the renowned composer, and Bigelow even had an
apartment renovation venture they started together in their early days in Manhattan.
Bigelow’s career in flm began after her short flm The Set-Up, a deconstruction of flm
violence, landed her a place in the MFA program at Columbia. Her early flms The Loveless
(1981) and Near Dark (1987) were well received, but Bigelow’s big break came with her
trilogy of action flms that attracted a lot of attention, helped skyrocket her fame and
establish her as a powerhouse female director.
BLUE STEEL (1989) –Jamie Lee Curtis stars as a rookie cop, Megan Turner, who shoots and
kills a criminal holding up a supermarket, only to be accused of killing an unarmed man
due to no weapon being found at the scene. While Turner tries to clear her name, she is also
pursued by a dangerous psychopath who has been using the weapon to commit a series
24 Independent Media Inspiring Minds
AUSTRALIA
Kathryn Bigelow
Our 90s Action Movie Queen
By Cait Lyn Adamson
© Image Source
Before Kathryn Bigelow was kicking James Cameron’s butt at the Oscars and churning out
two of the most hard hitting and well acclaimed war movies in the last fve years (The Hurt
Locker, Zero Dark Thirty ), she was a 90s era directorial gem who got her start directing
some of the strangest and classically quintessential action movies of the decade.
Bigelow grew up in California and was raised by a librarian mother and a factory working
father. Artistically her roots are in painting, she studied at the San Francisco Institute of
Art where she received her BA and further pursued her artistry in New York City when she
received the Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. During her time
in New York City Bigelow was exposed to artists from all walks of life – fellow painters,
flmmakers and musicians. Phillip Glass, the renowned composer, and Bigelow even had an
apartment renovation venture they started together in their early days in Manhattan.
Bigelow’s career in flm began after her short flm The Set-Up, a deconstruction of flm
violence, landed her a place in the MFA program at Columbia. Her early flms The Loveless
(1981) and Near Dark (1987) were well received, but Bigelow’s big break came with her
trilogy of action flms that attracted a lot of attention, helped skyrocket her fame and
establish her as a powerhouse female director.
BLUE STEEL (1989) –Jamie Lee Curtis stars as a rookie cop, Megan Turner, who shoots and
kills a criminal holding up a supermarket, only to be accused of killing an unarmed man
due to no weapon being found at the scene. While Turner tries to clear her name, she is also
pursued by a dangerous psychopath who has been using the weapon to commit a series
24 Independent Media Inspiring Minds
