I wrestled with whether this was the right time to be writing this entry for Kathryn Bigelow. She's absolutely had an impact on American filmmaking, both with her failures and her successes. However, that impact has so much to do with her status as one of the rare female directors who was working at her level during the 1990s and 2000s. You really can't have a discussion about female directors without talking about Bigelow's career and what she accomplished.
It was difficult to pick a film for Bigelow, but in the end I had the most to say about "Blue Steel," the crime procedural starring Jamie Lee Curtis as a policewoman and Ron Silver as her stalker. This is one of those cases where the movie got better the more I thought about it, and elements that I originally thought of as weaknesses turned out to be something else. On one level, the film is about catching a criminal, and follows the typical pattern of cop dramas and erotic thrillers from the era, like "Sea of Love." Curtis's Officer Turner is a rookie facing a steep learning curve and lots of hostility in the workplace - inevitable for a New York cop in the 1980s.
However, the film's real accomplishment is that it manages to capture the psychology of a woman who is trying to make herself seen and heard in an environment where women typically don't exist. The discrimination is rarely overt, yet it's incredibly oppressive. There's a scene toward the end of the movie where a killer gets away because Officer Turner's statement to the police is deemed insufficient to make an arrest. From a legal and procedural standpoint, this is infuriating because there are many arguments you could make based on the testimony that could absolutely be used to convict the killer. However, the point of the scene is that Turner's standing as a woman and as a rookie is so poor, nobody is willing to stick their neck out for her. She's not believed because she has no authority or credibility in this situation, which is something that is unheard of with a male police officer in this role.
Over and over again, we see Turner in situations where she's rendered powerless due to institutional or cultural forces that automatically discount her based on her gender. She's constantly being held accountable for her actions, but doesn't seem to be afforded the same protections and deference enjoyed by other cops. Even in her own family, you can see the constraints on her ability to act due to old fashioned perceptions of propriety. The film acknowledges the difficulties of being a woman in a dangerous profession in a way that other films of the time period do not, and never glamorizes it. Even in the end, Turner doesn't become the typical action movie badass, and her path to empowerment is much rockier than those typically faced by her male movie counterparts. There's also an argument to be made that others seeing her as some avatar of violent wish fulfillment ends up being deeply detrimental to her life and relationships.
The film's cast is fantastic, featuring a slew of familiar character actors, including Richard Jenkins, Louise Fletcher, Ron Silver, Tom Sizemore, Elizabeth Pena, and Clancy Brown - in one of his few roles that qualifies as a romantic lead. And he's well paired with Curtis, in one of the more difficult, fascinating parts I've ever seen her play. I so appreciate that "Blue Steel" is an adult drama that addresses the characters' sexuality in a fairly realistic way, and isn't afraid to incorporate it into the story. The relationship between Curtis and Silver's characters is handled well, and given much more nuance than I expected.
Bigelow made her name as an action director, with films like "Point Break," but "Blue Steel" eschews spectacle and big set pieces in favor of more intimate moments of violence. And though occasionally stretching the limits of plausibility, this violence has just as much impact. I love the final shot of the film, which is just Turner sitting in a police car, absorbing everything that's happened to her. It's a good reminder that though Bigelow has been most consistently celebrated for her films about men, her films about women are just as impressive - though often overlooked.
What I've Seen - Kathryn Bigelow
The Loveless (1981)
Near Dark (1987)
Blue Steel (1990)
Point Break (1991)
Strange Days (1995)
The Weight of Water (2000)
K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
The Hurt Locker (2008)
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Detroit (2017)
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