Broadway Producer/Director Hal Prince Praises HURT LOCKER'S Kathryn Bigelow

Broadway legend Hal Prince, producer and director of 50 Broadway musicals and winner of 21 Tony Awards, spoke to Variety about director Kathryn Bigelow, who helmed the breakout hit film "The Hurt Locker." For Prince, Bigelow's direction on the film created "a masterpiece."

Says Prince in Variety:

"When I saw 'The Hurt Locker' this fall, I instantly wrote its director, Kathryn Bigelow, the following:

'I cannot imagine anything else muscling in on it being this year's best film. Your work with your collaborators is simply astonishing. Truly, I can't understand how you did it, but admire every frame.'

Incidentally, I also wrote Jeremy Renner, who plays the lead in what is essentially an ensemble cast, expressing boundless admiration for the truth and modesty in his performance.

The film is hardly my discovery. It has picked up awards everywhere -- from New York to Washington, and is on Time magazine's best-of-the-year list. But none of that explains what it meant to me. I've seen a great many war films, but this one is real in a way that I can't remember. Brilliantly written by Mark Boal, it comes off as a documentary. And its director and its cast are living it in a way I have never experienced. Why don't I say it: I'm at a loss for words. It's a masterpiece."

'The Hurt Locker' follows a United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team during the Iraq War. The story was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded with a bomb squad. 'The Hurt Locker' stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty.

Though a break-out this year, Bigelow is hardly new to the film community, having directed her first short, The Set Up, in 1978.  Her first full-length feature was The Loveless (1982), a biker movie which she co-directed with Monty Montgomery. Next, she directed Near Dark (1987), which she co-scripted with Eric Red, who also co-wrote her 1990 film, Blue Steel. Blue Steel starred Jamie Lee Curtis as a rookie police officer who is stalked by a psychopathic killer, played by Ron Silver.
Bigelow's followed Blue Steel with Point Break (1991), which starred Keanu Reeves as an FBI agent who poses as a surfer to catch the "Ex-Presidents", a team of surfing armed robbers led by Patrick Swayze who wear Reagan, Nixon, LBJ and Jimmy Carter masks when they hold up banks.

Bigelow's 1995 film Strange Days was written and produced by her ex-husband James Cameron. However, despite good notices and a unique, surrealistic stylishness, it failed to attract a major audience. Based on Anita Shreve's novel of the same name, Bigelow's 2000 film The Weight of Water is a portrait of two women trapped in suffocating relationships. In 2002 she directed K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford, about a group of men aboard the Soviet Union's first nuclear powered submarine. Poor reviews for the film would keep her out the directors chair for nearly 7 years.

The came The Hurt Locker. Set in post-invasion Iraq, the film received "universal acclaim" (according to Metacritic) and a 97% "fresh" rating from the "Top Critics" of Rotten Tomatoes. The film stars Brian Geraghty, Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie, with cameos by Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes. She received a Golden Globe nomination for directing.

Bigelow's television credits include episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street (1997-1998) and the TV series Wild Palms (1993). She also directed the 1987 music video for the New Order song "Touched by the Hand of God".

 

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