Kathryn Bigelow is one of the most prominent female directors of the modern generation. Having her career start in 1978, she got her opportunities in short films and indie projects until she received attention with the action film Point Break. From there, she stayed involved in heavy projects.
Her most successful being The Hurt Locker, which won her the Academy Award for Best Director, the first for a female, and Best Picture. Looking back on her filmography, Bigelow demonstrated hefty skill in every heavy genre. To sum it all, here are her ten directorial efforts, ranked by Rotten Tomatoes ratings.
The Weight of Water (34%)
The Weight of Water is an overlooked piece from Kathryn Bigelow that crosses multiple plot strands that unlocks an intriguing mystery under its skin. Catherine McCormack plays Jean Janes as a newspaper photographer who investigates the murders of two immigrant women in her New Hampshire place.
Sean Penn plays her vulnerable husband who gets entangled with the mysteries of the investigation. The film is based on a 1997 Anita Shreve novel loosely about the Smuttynose Island murders. While it could be of Bigelow’s wheelhouse, the film is overly muddled.
K-19: The Widowmaker (61%)
Bigelow showed potential on giving life to war-themed films with K-19: The Widowmaker. This thriller that starred Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson is centered on the Soviet submarine K-19 submarine, which suffered from technical fatalities on its initial voyage.
Ford plays the Ahab-minded Captain Alexei Vostrikov who commanded the vessel through obstacles and Neeson plays his subordinate Captain Misha Polenin who tried to keep his moral compass. Even with its tight runtime, Bigelow kept the tension running in her own Das Boot effort. Though, this ends up as a flop.
Strange Days (62%)
On her first foray into sci-fi, Bigelow brought to life a story written by then-husband James Cameron about a former cop who delves into uncovering the mystery of a murder by recalling coveted memories and physical sensations. Director Bigelow employs a film noir style to make an absorbing experience of the crime’s scale.
Yet, it was able to tackle different issues like corruption, discrimination, and surveillance in an eerie but moving manner. The film, starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, and Juliette Lewis, was a flop but became a cult classic.
Point Break (69%)
Who would know that Kathryn Bigelow was behind the cult sensation Point Break? Yet, she pulled it off effortlessly. To the unfamiliar, the plot revolves on FBI agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) going undercover to infiltrate a group of bank robbers, led by the charismatic Bodhi (Patrick Swayze).
In pulling off the intense action scenes and the surfing sequences, Bigelow demonstrated that she is capable and impeccable. Both Reeves and Swayze are memorable in their parts, and their rapport is glowing in every scene. Plus, Gary Busey’s villain is enjoyable.
Blue Steel (71%)
But before Point Break, Kathryn Bigelow took on a Jamie Lee Curtis vehicle that expanded her range. The Halloween star plays rookie cop Megan Turner who is entangled in a wild goose chase from a psychopath who takes an unhealthy obsession with her. While Curtis is good as ever as Turner, Ron Silver as the main antagonist brings chills of this time.
Bigelow showed confidence in pulling of action scenes in minimalist manners. And even though the plot is really a Halloween scenario in a police procedural, it is thrilling.
The Loveless (80%)
The Loveless marks not only the debut of Bigelow on feature-length films but also the acting debut of Willem Dafoe as the lead protagonist. Dafoe is a biker named Vance who gets entangled in danger from a motorcycle gang who intends to race to Daytona.
This film is an overlooked part of Dafoe’s filmography, and for his debut, he demonstrated grit and gravitas that allowed him to play complex roles. As for Bigelow’s direction, she started strong in minimalist forms. The shots are thornily executed and the action is sleek.
Detroit (84%)
Kathryn Bigelow’s latest film is a criminally underrated 2017 film. This time, she tackled the 1967 Detroit riots, particularly on the Algiers Motel incident. Bigelow never shied away from the heavy issues that the incident encompassed. And since it is based on several true accounts, she meticulously staged sequences from the chaotic situations the streets to the claustrophobic tension in the motel.
Everyone is in their A-game, with John Boyega as distinguished officer Melvin Dismukes, Algee Smith as torn survivor Larry Reed and Will Poulter as cruel officer David Senak.
Near Dark (88%)
Kathryn Bigelow is a master of her craft, with her complete ability to blend to any genre. For her second directorial effort, she blends the Western, the horror and the family drama genres into one story of a young Midwestern boy named Caleb who encounters a family of traveling vampires.
His misadventures allowed Bigelow to bring her chops on the seedy Western subgenre. The result is a sleek cult classic in the making. The film features actors Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen and Jenette Goldstein, collaborators in other James Cameron movies.
Zero Dark Thirty (91%)
It seems that Bigelow wanted a hand on extremely crucial issues that speak of the socio-political wounds that cripple the nation. The second foray to that is Zero Dark Thirty, a heavy dramatization of the operational manhunt to take down Osama bin Laden. This 2012 film never shies away from tackling the CIA’s unethical means of torture interrogation.
Rather than giving light to this, Bigelow sternly showed the moral consequences that came to the figures behind the operation. Jessica Chastain as CIA intelligence analyst Maya gives an empathetic performance as the character with the nearest moral compass but complicated philosophy.
The Hurt Locker (97%)
Bigelow’s best effort, thus far, is her Academy Award-wining thriller about a triad of Iraqi War bomb disposal officers who deal with the psychological impact that the war took a toll on them both on American soil and the Iraq insurgency. Screenwriter Mark Boal derived inspiration from his time as a journalist covering the American troops and bomb squads.
And he precisely depicted the military aspect and the personal aspect of the subject. Bigelow takes advantage of the slow-burning scope of war by creating a gentle yet eye-opening portrait of those who gave their lives. For that, she deserves her first Oscar ever won by a female director in history.