Variations on ‘the lonely walk’ in the films of Kathryn Bigelow

Abstract

ABSTRACT Kathryn Bigelow prioritises spatial relationships in narratives featuring groups of men in high-pressure, threatening situations. Bigelow foregrounds the inner, individual experiences of characters within ensembles and institutions, ‘the lonely walk’ affording a useful way to visualise the action of isolated characters in danger. Bigelow’s use of spatial relationships to convey the inner lives of characters is an unorthodox mode for action films. In Point Break, this aesthetic/formal approach is associated with philosophy, psychology, and judicial law. Bigelow stages the plot, of an FBI agent getting drawn into the lifestyle of bank robbers, in a series of face-offs leading towards transcendence of the laws that define most cops-and-robbers films. K-19: The Widowmaker, an adaptation of a real-life Soviet submarine disaster, also contains a face-off between men with contrasting philosophies. Again, Bigelow accentuates individual action, as each man faces his own walk towards radiation poisoning. In The Hurt Locker, the central character and his harrowing missions are defined by his rogue single-mindedness. He is an impenetrable action hero, but under Bigelow’s direction, that status is one that occurs from the inside out. Finally, in historical drama Detroit, Bigelow’s attention to individual volition shifts to characters that lack freedom and equal treatment.