Director Bigelow big on westerns, adrenaline
Kathryn Bigelow probably loves many things, but the two I know about are westerns and adrenaline junkies.
Westerns because she directed the great 1987 horror tale "Near Dark," about vampires roaming the West as the last American outlaws.
Adrenaline junkies because she directed 1991's "Point Break," about surfing dudes who rob banks for the sheer thrill of it.
Bigelow's newest movie, "The Hurt Locker," combines an adrenaline junkie with western elements, but it's about U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
The intense drama tells the story of a military bomb squad. It opens wide in the Northwest suburbs this weekend. I recently sat down with Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal for a brief interview.
Q. What's the thing about "The Hurt Locker" that makes you the proudest?
KB. It's a very gratifying work because of its incredibly rigorous attention to detail. To have one of our techs come up to me and say "That's it! I was there and that's it!" You've brought it back for that particular person who was actually there. He couldn't imagine it being more real. We re-created Baghdad for him.
Q. How would your movie have been different had it gone through the regular Hollywood system instead of as an independent production?
KB. I don't think we would have shot in the Middle East (Amman, Jordan). We would be building sets in Arizona or New Mexico, which would be fine, but a lot more expensive to build those sets. Those are big sets. And you could never get that kind of texture and nuance and depth and detail.
MB. And we wouldn't have had insurance approval to shoot in Jordan. They like countries with long, long track records of safety and stability.
KB. Again, it goes back to both our desires to make this as real as possible.
MB. If we had $600 million, you couldn't build the sets we had.
Q. It must have been strange for the actors to finish their scenes, but they could never leave the set, if you know what I mean.
KB. It was a 24/7 immersion into this world (for the actors). That was extraordinarily important to informing those characters. Just as a soldier in theater doesn't get to go home until his tour of duty is done. There is no "time out," just as there was no time out for the people shooting this film.
Q. Mr. Boal, were there any disappointments in the final movie, scenes you wrote that had to be deleted?
MB. This is really a no-disappointment zone for me. This was pretty much Easy Street. Every once in a while you have to get lucky, right?
Q. When you two disagreed, what were those disagreements about?
MB. I know we had a lot of disagreements, but I can't remember any of them right now. I'm not trying to dodge this, but it all seems so insignificant now.
KB. When we were working, it was very spirited and combustible. But if I could go out on a limb here, I think we brought out the best in each other. We pushed each other.
Q. Final question. Would you work together again?
KB. I'd love to.
MB. We've got something we're working on. But that's up to the Hollywood gods, if you know what I mean.