Kathryn Bigelow returns from Hollywood wilderness

Kathryn Bigelow, Hollywood's only top-line female action director, has received considerable acclaim in the States for her latest film, The Hurt Locker, about the Iraq war, which opens in Britain on August 28. Exhilarating, uncompromising and relentlessly realistic, it has been described as the best fiction movie yet about the conflict.

It also marks a great return to form for Bigelow, who made her name with the 1991 high-octane surf movie Point Break but then went off the boil commercially with the disappointing Soviet submarine blockbuster, K-19 The Widow-maker.
 
However, despite rave reviews for The Hurt Locker, there have been rumblings about its avoidance of political commentary and broadly sympathetic portrayal of the military, with one American critic calling it "one of the most effective recruiting vehicles for the US Army that I have seen".

Set in the early days of the US occupation of Iraq, the film follows a three-man American bomb squad whose job is to dismantle roadside IEDs planted by insurgents, with little more than a pair of pliers. The script was written from first-hand experience by American investigative journalist Mark Boal, who was embedded with the US Army's Explosive Ordnance Disposal squad in Baghdad in 2004.
 
Despite its subject matter and distinctly unstarry cast - Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes and Lost actress Evangeline Lilly make only brief appearances - The Hurt Locker is being heavily tipped for a best picture Oscar nomination.

In box office terms, it has performed considerably better than many of the recent films about the Iraq conflict. By August 6, just seven weeks into its US cinema run, The Hurt Locker had grossed sales of more than $7 million - outperforming 2007's In the Valley of Elah (which took $6.8 million in the US) and likely to surpass 2008's Stop-Loss ($10.9 million).
 
The positive reviews have been coming in ever since its world premiere at the Venice film festival last September where it received a 10-minute standing ovation. Time called it a "near perfect" war movie while the New York Times hailed it "the best non-documentary American feature made yet about the war in Iraq".  

Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun Times, has tipped unknown lead Jeremy Renner, who plays adrenaline-junkie Staff Sergeant William James, for a best actor award. The Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern called the film "a first-rate action thriller [and] a vivid evocation of urban warfare in Iraq".

American critic Tara McKelvey likened The Hurt Locker to a recruiting film
But not all reviewers have rated The Hurt Locker in such glowing terms. Variety's Derek Elley noted Bigelow steers clear of questioning the US presence in Iraq, and that "with a couple brief exceptions, [the film] treats its entire Arab cast as either faceless cannon fodder or potential threats", while fellow American critic Tara McKelvey likened it to a recruiting film.
 
Bigelow says her aim was to give audiences a "boots on the ground, you are there, fly on the wall look at combat in the 21st century. A day in the life of a bomb tech... men who have arguably the most dangerous job in the world [but] are there by choice.".
 
With her good looks, long hair and lean six-foot frame, some (mostly male) interviewers often ask why Bigelow has not spent her career in front of the camera, rather than behind it. But the former painter, conceptual artist, film academic and ex-wife of James 'Titanic' Cameron has an instinct for highly visual, action-driven storytelling and examining modern masculinity. As she told Newsweek recently: "War's dirty little secret is that some men love it. I'm trying to unpack why, to look at what it means to be a hero in the context of 21st-century combat."

WHAT THE LONDON CRITICS ARE SAYING:Ian Nathan, Empire: Unlike the tirade of recently failed Iraq-themed efforts, the impenetrable geopolitics of the Middle East are not on Bigelow’s mind, nor are the straightforward slings and arrows of the modern combat flick. She's all about visceral participation. The result is a spare, unyielding masterclass in the racking-up of tension to the point thrill distorts into exquisite agony - not a second relents. (Verdict: five stars out of five)

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Bigelow is more interested in psychology than politics, but she shows just enough awareness of how the behaviour of soliders can fuel retaliation and even includes one direct suggestion that the US Army can and does choose to disregard the welfare of civilians. Most encouragingly, the film offers a fine distinction between heroism and heroics. (Verdict: four stars out of five)

Sukhdev Sandhu, the Daily Telegraph: Bigelow has always been strong on the psychology and dynamics of male bonding. The scenes in which the men get drunk and start wrestling are captured in all their muscular, playful, erotic intensity… The Hurt Locker also conveys the nervousness and paranoia the Americans feel when every passing butcher, DVD-vendor or taxi-driver could be an insurgent-in-waiting. (Verdict: four stars out of five) ·