This year at the gilded, glittered circle-jerk Hollywood calls the Oscars, two former lovers will go head to head for the coveted "best picture" award.Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" and James Cameron's "Avatar" are the two movies getting all the buzz this year and those two directors used to be married – which only makes the competition even more tantalizing.
In the end, I think Cameron will walk away with the Oscar but it really shouldn't go down like that. Bigelow made the superior film.
In "Avatar" Cameron creates a new world, race and language to use as a metaphor for our own. The premise is predictable, the plot drags and if you're not enthralled by the whirring colors it takes you about 15 minutes to figure out that Cameron over simplified it to ensure mass appeal and commercial success.
By fifth minute you know you the bad guys are, who the good guys are, and that the right side will win. In "The Hurt Locker" Bigelow created a real film with real people about real issues. Where "Avatar" is grand, epic and admittedly breathtaking – it's at best an escapist film that reassures us that no matter what heinous atrocities we commit as a culture if we feel bad enough about it we're OK.
"The Hurt Locker" doesn't try to create an artificial world. It gives the viewer a glimpse into the one we're already in – horror and all.
The thing that was so great about "The Hurt Locker" was the dialogue – the conversations between the men. There were believable. It didn't seem like they were trying to sell me anything.
I liked that it didn't fit into the "war movie" stereotype where the righteous white hero must protect innocents/virgins/schoolchildren from a group of ethnic evil doers only to vanquish the terrorists/Nazi's/Vietcong to score the babe with the bodacious bod.
But it all comes down to the ending. I'm not going to give it away but Bigelow earned my everlasting respect for not pandering and giving the audience the easy to swallow, happily-ever-after bullcrap.
From the beginning "The Hurt Locker" challenged the norms and broke ground. It's like an authentic Philly cheesesteak vs. the Big Mac.
The Big Mac is massively popular but the cheesesteak is what you really want.
I haven't seen either of these movies. I skipped Avatar because I just didn't care - is that bad? I just couldn't be bothered with another epic about a world that frankly, isn't that much different looking then the one we live in except the people are blue.
ReplyDeleteAnd the hurt locker - I am not sure that has even come out in Australia yet, and if it has I just missed it :(
Watching The Hurt Locker was one of the most intense movie experiences of my life. I think the real triumph was Bigelow's ability to capture how relentless war is and then kind of replicating that for the viewer--I had a blanket covering my face for a lot of the movie because I really can't deal with too much peril or suspense.
ReplyDeleteAvatar wasn't the greatest movie but I read an article saying that the 3D camera that Cameron developed is like the biggest development in film since sound was introduced. So he might get the best picture award, while Bigelow gets the best director, or vice versa.