Kathryn Bigelow’s Explosive Return |
It’s been a long eight years since Kathryn Bigelow released a movie. The Oscar-winning filmmaker behind The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, and Detroit finally returns with A House of Dynamite, hitting Netflix today.
I’m Rebecca Ford, and I’m excited to see Bigelow back in fine form with her new film. She’s known for her deeply researched movies, and though they’re not documentaries, they capture accurate details from historical events, such as the manhunt for Osama bin Laden or Detroit’s 1967 12th Street riot.
With A House of Dynamite, Bigelow is depicting a fictional event—a nuclear attack on the US. But she and screenwriter Noah Oppenheim made every effort to have the film’s events unfold as accurately as possible. After you watch it, you can read all about how they did it in my piece based on conversations with Oppenheim and one of the film’s consultants, Lieutenant General Daniel L. Karbler. Oppenheim hopes that the film’s startling revelations make the public more aware of the nuclear threat: “We all have to get more involved in these conversations. Human beings created these existential threats, and therefore we have the capacity to solve them.”
Bigelow made history when she became the first woman to win the best-director Oscar in 2010 for The Hurt Locker. Only eight other women have ever been nominated for best director—and just two others have won since Bigelow’s win. Those are all pretty deplorable stats, but there’s actually a chance for one of these numbers to change this year. Both Bigelow and Chloé Zhao are firmly in the race, and while best director remains a boys club, there’s hope that the category will open up more this year. Only time will tell. |
