Kathryn Bigelow's Shot at Oscar History

(CBS)  Kathryn Bigelow is a film director who made a movie almost no one went to see, about a subject, the Iraq war, the Hollywood studios were afraid of. And yet her movie, "The Hurt Locker," is running neck and neck for all the top Oscars with the biggest grossing movie of all time. It is megabucks "Avatar" against made-on-a-shoestring "Hurt Locker."

Bigelow was a painter before she was a filmmaker and is still something of a recluse. But now she spends a lot of her time walking the red carpet.

Photo Essay: Kathryn Bigelow
Photo Essay: "The Hurt Locker"
Full Segment: Kathryn Bigelow
Web Extra: Why This Film?
Web Extra: Outgunning The Guys
Web Extra: Friendly Competition
Web Extra: Getting Into Character
Web Extra: A Kathryn Bigelow Film

"The Hurt Locker" has already won just about every major critics' award, plus Film of the Year from the Producers Guild and Best Director award from the Directors Guild. If she wins the big one, she'll be the first woman ever to win an Oscar for directing.

Critics say that Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" is the best war movie made in years, and there's an irony in the fact that it's up against James Cameron's movie, Avatar.

"How sweet is this to be head to head with your ex husband? Incredible that the two films were made by people who were married to each other," Stahl asked.

"You couldn't have scripted it," Bigelow replied, laughing.

"There's this whole thing that's going on where people love to, they love to create a headline: 'Battle of the exes,' you know, 'War of the roses.' We were married two decades ago for a brief period of time and we've been friends and collaborators since," Cameron said.

As we talked about this with Bigelow at a ranch where she escapes from the hoopla of Hollywood, she said she and Cameron are now such good friends they swapped scripts and early versions of each other's movies.

"When he saw 'Hurt Locker,' did he say, 'You ought to do this, you ought to do that'?" Stahl asked.

"He said 'cut negative,'" Bigelow said. "Cut negative means you're done editing."

"Cut negative means it's perfect?" Stahl asked.

"It was a big compliment," Bigelow explained.

And now her little movie has as many Oscar nominations at Cameron's blockbuster, nine for both.

"I was stunned, shocked, thrilled beyond belief," Bigelow said.

Nominations include best actor, best screenplay, best picture and best director.

In "The Hurt Locker" - a riveting two hours filled with fear and violence - Bigelow shows how terrifying it is for a bomb squad in Iraq.

By using wobbly hand-held cameras, Bigelow heightens the tension and the sense of immediacy: she wants the audience to feel like the fourth member of the bomb squad.

"The ground just erupts, out of nowhere. I mean, it's just an incredibly harrowing, dangerous, volatile environment," she told Stahl.

She sees the film both as anti-war, and as a tribute to the soldiers who sign up to do this kind of work.

"These are men and women who volunteer, who are there by choice, who are walking toward what you and I and perhaps the rest of the world would run from. And they arguably have the most dangerous job in the world, yet they're there by choice," she explained.

"They don't know where to look. They don't know," Stahl remarked.

"You don't know where to look. It's an invisible enemy. And you don't know if the man on the third floor balcony is shaking out a rug or calling in a sniper strike," Bigelow said.

But beneath all the action is a film about the psyche of soldiers under siege. Bigelow opens the movie with a quote: "The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug."

"But it's also a sense of meaning and purpose that nothing else in your life can replicate, except the battlefield," Bigelow explained.

Her main character, Sergeant Will James, can only function when his life is in danger. He's a go-it-alone cowboy who breaks the rules and terrifies his squad members with reckless behavior.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page »

[flgurl]

The Academy gave away the winner when they had Barbara Streisand present the award for best director.

[juliusmay]

I think Kathryn Bigelow will win best director at the Oscars this Sunday. Its about time that a woman win this award.

[voxpopulus]

James Cameron - a schmuck as ever. She's well out of that.

[juliusmay]

Lesley, that was a brilliant segment. Nice job by you and the people that put the segment together.

[remand2]

Dear Leslie,

I guess James Cameron assumes the voting body for the Academy Awards is stupid and possibly as superficial as he is. In one sentence he has nullified the merits of Kathryn's film The Hurt Locker, insulted the Hollywood voting community, and privided a nice little excuse for himself should he lose to her on award night; "...it's an irressistable story"..they will have to vote for the first woman to win best director...

He is actually saying that the people who have earned the right to vote can't or won't see past gender - so if she wins, that is why.

I have seen both pictures and most of each directors other work and personally I find it insulting to Kathryn Bigelow's sense of story, drama, and form to be compared to Cameron's. Beside which, Bigelow knows how to direct actors.

If he wants to believe this superficiality is the criteria that will call the shots, then he should have at least turned it around and said something like:
"If I win, it's because McDonalds couldn't figure out a way to sell
Hurt Locker Mugs."

Thanks for a good story.

Jonathan Siegel TV/Film Editor LA, CA

[snoqbob]

I have to disagree with many of the supporters of this movie. While I was in the military, I did not serve in Iraq. But I do possess a knowledge of military operations, along with friend and family that did serve in Iraq. And I am not alone in my criticism of this movie. Review IMDB or iTunes for instance and you will see many other former military personnel criticizing this movie along with anyone with just plain common sense.

The sniper scene is so far from reality, it ruins the movie for many viewers that understand EOD personnel would not even come close to doing what the characters in this movie did. Not to mention what the special forces did not do in that situation. Every it of that scene is not only fiction, it's unbelievable fiction that wrecks the movie for anyone with reasonable knowledge of military operations.

I think it also portrays EOD personnel as reckless. Something obviously the U.S. Army recognized and didn't cooperate in the making of this movie.

I think everyone needs to understand this before they give her an Oscar. In my mind, anyone who creates a movie based on reality that is so far from it doesn't deserve our admiration. Was it suspenseful? Absolutely. Well directed. Absolutely. Is it a movie about the Army, or Iraq, or even humans from this planet in combat? Absolutely not, defies all common sense and reality.

[roobaby43]

Dear Leslie,

Thank you so much for the fantastic interview with Kathryn Bigelow. I loved The Hurt Locker and her work on it was superb. She most certainly deserves to win the Academy Award based on this intense film, not because she is a woman.

Your interview with the star of this film nailed this right on the head. She should win for the incredible work she did, not because she has breasts. It takes guts to buck the male dominated ceiling in that industry and she not only bucked it, but bucked it with her usual intelligence, grace and grit.

She is inspiring to any young writer in any genre, male or female. As for me, I'm a writer myself, though not a young one. Your story on Ms. Bigelow inspired me to carry on with my own projects. Thanks again for the best piece on 60 Minutes!