Known for gritty, violent, and sometimes highly kinetic action films, Kathryn Bigelow is the first woman to ever win an Oscar for Best Director. Coincidentally, she and ex-husband James Cameron were nominated the same year for their films, The Hurt Locker and Avatar, respectively.
I became a huge fan of Kathryn Bigelow after seeing the original Point Break (1991) and Strange Days, and I've praised the filmmaker a number of times ever since. In another post in Ted's MOVIE OF THE WEEK, I discussed about seeing earlier works from master filmmakers before they became famous. I didn't realize till later that Blue Steel, which came out a year before Point Break, was directed by Kathryn Bigelow.
Also co-written by the California native, Blue Steel stars Jamie Lee Curtis as a fresh-out-of-the-academy rookie police officer. After foiling an attempted robbery, she finds herself hunting a serial killer who has been mysteriously carving her name on the cartridge casings of bullets used on his victims.
Thrillers with law enforcement officers typically follow a basic formula that may seem overused, but, hey, it works all the time. Stop me if you've heard this one before . . . A cop gets into a cat-and-mouse with some psycho or dangerous criminal. Sometimes a partner gets killed or seriously injured, and there's a superior officer or an internal affairs investigator who always seems to be at odds with our protagonist.
Blue Steel, however, is special and goes beyond the average crime thriller. For one, films about female cops are few and far between. Secondly, Blue Steel incorporates considerable and thoughtful character depth, and it is masterful in suspense and realism. And like another one of my favorite directors, Tony Scott, Kathryn Bigelow has a striking visual style by making frequent use of the telephoto lens and close-up shots.
For a long time, Point Break and Strange Days have been two of my top favorite films. And in directing these movies, along with The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, and Detroit, Kathryn Bigelow established herself as an accomplished filmmaker who is as good, if not better than her male counterparts. So if you like Kathryn Bigelow's films, definitely check out her earlier works, especially Blue Steel.
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