Sneak preview: summing up today's news

With the Academy Awards coming on Sunday, everybody's rushing to see the nominated films and to weigh in on them.

The feminist blogosphere has been discussing the significance of and the problems with director Kathryn Bigelow's best feature nominee, The Hurt Locker (the movie has been plenty controversial gender issues aside; in the spirit of full disclosure, I'll say that I loved it.)

The Daily Beast contemplated the historic implications of the first-ever best picture win for a woman director. The Women's Media Center noted an even more striking gender-role exploding observation: "In spite of the deep and abiding desire to see a woman break through this particular glass ceiling, the real possibility that the first Oscar award winning woman director will win for making a war film is almost a kick in the gut to many who make the types of films that most interest female ticket buyers. Bigelow works in a male paradigm and is being rewarded for that."

Shira Tarrant expands on Girl w/ Pen: "Bigelow likes the big bang in her movies — guns, explosions, a rough-punch to the gut. And in The Hurt Locker, there’s plenty of that rugged, isolated individualism that so often defines modern manhood. But Bigelow is more deeply interested in the warrior codes of masculinity that are intertwined with men’s fears and feelings, and their conflicted impulses around loyalty and leadership, posturing and parenthood.

We're not sure why the LA Times is so squeamish about feminism, but an insightful blogger writes, "Although her perspective shouldn't be tagged as 'feminist,' it's one that shakes up traditional notions of what men are and how they behave, whether on a battlefield, in the depths of a nuclear submarine or surfing off Malibu." The piece goes on to note that "by asserting her right as an artist to enter into that combat zone, Bigelow has established herself as one of the gutsiest filmmakers around." It's exciting to see a woman making great movies, making successful movies, and making movies that aren't chick flicks. Though some voices in the feminist blogosphere complain that the minor roles women play in The Hurt Locker are powerless and domestic, the LA Times got it right that Bigelow's "deeper interest lies in men's tribal rites and rituals; their fears, posturings and warrior codes; their feelings about sex and fatherhood; their conflicted loyalties and clashing ideas of what leadership and heroism mean," not just machine guns and combat boots.

We'll be watching this year's stars on the red carpet this weekend.
-TLF