3.4 - THE HURT LOCKER (2008) & Individualism

The Prestige

Our final Kathryn Bigelow offering is the 2008 multiple-Oscar-winning THE HURT LOCKER (2008). After initial (and not entirely favourable) reviews, we discuss the film’s sparse qualities, the way in which Bigelow subverts expectations, and one particularly…interesting stylistic choice. We conclude with a look back at her filmography, as explored over the past month, focusing on the various ways in which she has explored the ‘individual versus the world’ theme.

This Week’s Media
TRAINWRECK (2015): Judd Apatow, Amy Schumer, Bill Hader
BAYWATCH (2017): Seth Gordon, Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron

Recommendations
THE ENGLISH PATIENT (1996): Anthony Minghella, Ralph Fiennes, Juliet Binoche
MAN ON A LEDGE (2012): Asger Leth, Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks
LOCKOUT (2012): Luc Besson, Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace
BLACK HAWK DOWN (2001): Ridley Scott, Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor

Footnotes
First, here’s our TRAINWRECK small-batch episode, from a couple of years ago: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/small-batch-trainwreck/id990653468?i=1000382263538&mt=2. Then, here’s a link to the IMDB pages of the (delightful) Mark Boal, and the film itself (containing some interesting trivia): http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1676793/?ref_=tt_ov_wr, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/?ref_=nm_knf_i1. This is more on the actual term ’the hurt locker’, which Rob mentions in passing, but we don’t actually explain: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8555318.stm. This is the game Eldridge plays (we’re completely not advocating this, but its levels of violence are very interesting in the light of what this film says about war): https://gearsofwar.com/en-us. And finally, here’s that Dustin Hoffman speech against the idea of individualism in the film industry, which seems a nice place to end our mini-series on Bigelow’s artistic endeavours (skip to about 3 minutes in to get past the nominations): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhDmNRQgKLM.