Kathryn Bigelow on Hitchcock: The Director Who Shaped Her Vision

For years, Kathryn Bigelow has been quietly upending expectations of what an action film can be. Her early work, including Blue Steel and Point Break, didn’t just deliver the requisite thrills; they also poked at gender conventions and delved into moral grey areas, all while keeping audiences on the edge of their seats. More recently, she’s turned her attention to military stories, pouring meticulous research into projects like The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, both of which have drawn critical acclaim and a fair few trophies along the way.

What sets Bigelow apart isn’t a reliance on flashy effects or technical wizardry. Instead, she’s always seemed more interested in the craft of storytelling—building tension, drawing out suspense, and letting the drama breathe. It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that when asked about her influences, she points to Alfred Hitchcock, the so-called ‘Master of Suspense’.

Hitchcock’s Enduring Influence

Pressed to name a single favourite from Hitchcock’s vast back catalogue, Bigelow hesitated. She’s a fan of the obvious classics—Psycho, The Birds, Rear Window, Vertigo—but she also has a soft spot for some of his less celebrated early work. One film in particular stands out: the 1930 silent feature Murder! “It’s a silent film, but it’s Hitchcock,” she explained.

“All of his signatures, all the signifiers, everything we’ve come to know and love about Hitchcock, they’re all in play.”

Hitchcock’s reputation was cemented in Hollywood, but his career began much earlier, back in the 1920s with The Lodger. Those early films, often made on a shoestring, reveal a director already experimenting with perspective and suspense—qualities that would become his trademarks. Murder!, adapted from a stage play, is a case in point. While it might lack the polish of his later work, it’s a fascinating study in how to translate the immediacy of theatre to the screen, offering viewers a vantage point they’d never get from the stalls.

Underrated Gems and Second Chances

For Bigelow, Murder! deserves a place alongside Hitchcock’s more famous titles like Rebecca or To Catch a Thief. Her appreciation for overlooked films isn’t just academic; it’s personal. She’s had her own share of underappreciated projects. K-19: The Widowmaker, her tense submarine drama, was a notorious flop at the box office and left her in what’s sometimes called ‘director’s jail’ for years. Yet, with time, the film has been reassessed, especially for its unflinching portrayal of military life and procedure.

Other entries in her filmography, such as A House of Dynamite and Detroit, also met with mixed reactions on release. Still, as with Hitchcock’s Murder!, there’s every chance these works will find new audiences and fresh appreciation as the years go by. Predicting which films will endure is a tricky business, but Bigelow’s career suggests she’s in it for the long haul, with plenty more stories yet to tell.