If there was any question in your mind that The Hurt Locker wouldn’t win this year’s Oscar race for both best picture and best director, you best quench your mind of any of those misconceptions right now. For weeks, we’ve been watching as The Hurt Locker and its director Kathryn Bigelow have pretty much swept the floor with all of the competition at critics and industry awards across the country. And last night at The Director’s Guild of America awards ceremony, Bigelow became the first female to ever win the award for best director; beating out James Cameron for Avatar, Lee Daniels for Precious, Jason Reitman for Up in the Air and Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds. A landmark achievement to be sure.
What makes the win a little bit more exciting is the fact that since 1948, the recipient of the DGA award goes on to win the Oscar every time in all but six years. No woman has ever won best director at the Oscars and only three have ever been nominated: Lina Wertmüller for 1976′s Seven Beauties, Jane Campion for 1993′s The Piano and Sofia Coppola for 2003′s Lost in Translation. So as of now it looks extremely likely that we’ll see history happen as Bigelow will take home the trophy for Best Director; which means a probable shoe-in for Best Picture. Start placing your bets now.
full winners list of the DGA awards is below the seats…
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN FEATURE FILM
Kathryn Bigelow
The Hurt Locker
(Summit Entertainment)
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES FOR TELEVISION/MINISERIES
Ross Katz
Taking Chance
(HBO)
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DOCUMENTARY
Louie Psihoyos
The Cove
(Oceanic Preservation Society and Roadside Attractions)
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMATIC SERIES NIGHT
Lesli Linka Glatter
Mad Men – “Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency”
(AMC)
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY SERIES
Jason Winer
Modern Family – “Pilot”
(ABC)
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSICAL VARIETY
Don Mischer
We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial
(HBO)
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN REALITY PROGRAMS
Craig Borders
Build It Bigger Season 3 – “Hong Kong Bridge”
(Discovery Science)
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DAYTIME SERIALS
Christopher Goutman
As The World Turns – “Once Upon A Time”
(CBS)
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMMERCIALS
Tom Kuntz
MJZ
UK
OUTSTANDING DIRECTORIAL ACHIEVEMENT IN CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS
Allison Liddi-Brown
Princess Protection Program
(Disney Channel)
2009 DGA SERVICE AND CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENTS
Director Norman Jewison – DGA Lifetime Achievement Award for distinguished achievement in Motion Picture Direction.
Robert A. Iger, President and CEO of The Walt Disney Company – DGA Honorary Life Member Award, given in recognition of outstanding creative achievement, leadership in the industry, contribution to the DGA or to the profession of directing.
Barry M. Meyer, Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. – DGA Honorary Life Member Award, given in recognition of outstanding creative achievement, leadership in the industry, contribution to the DGA or to the profession of directing.
Roger Goodman received the DGA’s 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award in News Direction for distinguished achievement.
Cleve Landsberg received the 2010 Frank Capra Achievement Award, which is given to an Assistant Director or Unit Production Manager in recognition of career achievement in the industry and service to the Directors Guild of America.
Maria Jimenez Henley received the 2010 Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award, which is given to an Associate Director or Stage Manager in recognition of career achievement in the industry and service to the Directors Guild of America.
I’ve only got two words for her shitty movie to beat out Basterds, and her direction beating Tarantino’s: Affirmative action. BS.
bs, Henrik, Hurt Locker is definitely one of the best directed movies of the year, even though its not one of my biggest faves.
I still think Avatar is taking the oscar whether anyone likes it or not. I think we’re looking at the same situation as when LA Confidential played second fiddle to Titanic.
Agreed with Goon on this one. The Hurt Locker succeeds because of the dynamite direction (and editing, of course), but it is funny that a film that by most yardsticks 25 years ago would be considered an ‘action blockbuster’ is not more or less in the realm of ‘art film’ – it shows how far hollywood has pushed towards spectacle and comic books over that span.
It doesn’t succeed because the direction and editing sucks as much as the story and characters.
I am baffled that people actually like The Hurt Locker. To me it was no better than K-19: The Widowmaker and all the other shit she’s put out.
Care to back any of that up, Henrik, since you brought it up, or are you just stirring the shit-pot?
Well, wasn’t there a thread on it at one point? I did put forward my case some time ago on this very website.
The main character is a cliché, a gung-ho cowboy in a war zone. Defusing bombs on film is a horrible cliché, one that I did not expect anybody with a brain to find exciting anymore. The movie looks like shit, trying to have big explosions on a small budget doesn’t gel, and it suffers from the same old action movie problem of spending time on things that nobody is wondering how will turn out. Who ever felt that the main character was in peril? I sure didn’t, and since there was nothing to the movie than constructing peril (which doesn’t feel dangerous), it’s a shitty fucking movie. I was bored out of my mind.
I mean compare any scene in The Hurt Locker (supposedly tense) to any scene in Inglorious Basterds. It’s not even a contest which movie succeeds in creating tension and which doesn’t.
As for the art movie statement, I’ll take Peter Parker over cowboy-guy any day. I’ll even take Jake Sully.
the difference is that Renner is actually convincing to me that this type of person actually exists.
Sure, I love Inglourious Basterds (and consider it to be the best american made film of 2009) – it is a better made film than the Hurt Locker (but the margin between the quality of Basterds and Locker is pretty narrow)- it certainly does not invalidate that the Hurt Locker is an excellent collection of nailbiting set-pieces that indeed add up to a pretty satisfying whole, but a war film, and and simply a film. Does Wages of Fear not work simply because the truck and working guys can’t blow up until late in the film because then there would be no film? No. It works like gangbusters. I think that deep down even if you know the main character will pull through the film, it doesn’t stop the scenes from working on a pure visceral level. And the Hurt Locker is gorgeous to boot.
Henrik, you should watch GENERATION KILL, it is The Hurt Locker with a lot more depth, but it can do so because the run-time of that Gulf War II miniseries is 6 hours, not 100 minutes.
Just because it is a cliche, it doesn’t mean a skilled filmmaker can’t make it work. I’ve zero issue at being manipulated with The Hurt Locker, and I happen to think that on a ‘craft’ level The Hurt Locker pushes my buttons with its real locations and sun and sweat and people more satisfyingly than Avatar’s CGI and iridescent love story. I only make the comparison because you are saying “I’ll take Jake Sully” just to be surly. Really? You think there is more depth in Cameron’s characters than Bigelow’s?
I’m still quite surprised that the conversation is between The Hurt Locker and Avatar, and that UP IN THE AIR is being left out in the cold….
I totally agree with Kurt. The Hurt Locker, granted, does only a few things, but does them pretty well, and it totally works for me. And yeah, I’ll take Hurt Locker’s sand and snipers and Inglourious Basterds’ suspense set pieces over Cameron’s spectacle any day of the week.
“but it can do so because the run-time of that Gulf War II miniseries is 6 hours, not 100 minutes.”
First of all I hate statements like these. How many minutes does it require to have depth? No more than four: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o22eIJDtKho
Second of all I did not like what I watched of The Wire, american television usually rubs me the wrong way, failing at being comedic, and reaching too far for melodrama that isn’t earned by having interesting characters. Generation Kill is from the creators of The Wire isn’t it? I might check it out at some point.
I felt Jake Sully was a fresher main character, paraplegic wanting his legs back, I can’t think of another action movie who had this character, than the guy in The Hurt Locker, it’s not just to be surly. If I am to choose between two shallow characters, I’m going with the new guy rather than the old guy.
“I’ve zero issue at being manipulated with The Hurt Locker”
If there is any misunderstanding, I would like to clarify that I have zero issues with being manipulated as well. I’m perfectly happy being manipulated. But when it’s not done well, ie. defusing bombs as a way of creating tension, it gets pretty tedious.
@ Henrik: “Second of all I did not like what I watched of The Wire, American television usually rubs me the wrong way, failing at being comedic, and reaching too far for melodrama that isn’t earned by having interesting characters.”
Exactly how much of THE WIRE have you watched? The melodrama in that show is pretty toned down, it seems like a completely off-base criticism for that show in particular…
But in the hurt locker, the typical american Cowboy is played as a tragic figure, not a hero. he practically abandons his family to continue to get his adrenaline high. It subverts the hero into a junkie. That is not typical in Blockbuster or mainstream American filmmaking.
All I have seen of The Wire is a scene of two cops walking up to a house jabbering like fucking retards, almost speaking on top of eachother trying to get the exposition out of the way before reaching the door, then saying fuck to eachother while they investigate. Not a big deal, but definitely not something that made me think this show was any different than typical american TV. I hear it’s like a well into a society in america, that’s cool, but why is there murder investigations then? Anyway, not a big deal.
There is such a thing as having your cake and eating it too. You get the cowboy that everybody loves and roots for the entire movie, then you try and be clever as if you did it all to make a point at the end, not to make the movie sell to a certain audience. It takes a better director (and writer I guess) to pull this off. As it is, The Hurt Locker is the equivalent of a rap song talking about drugs, clubs, alcohol and guns, but then at the end saying that the world is a sad place because of them.
What american TV once was:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8ZZyJCqkg4
What it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhDeQMLGM3c
@Henrik, “a scene of two cops walking up to a house jabbering like fucking retards, almost speaking on top of each other trying to get the exposition out of the way before reaching the door, then saying fuck to each other while they investigate”
So you have seen one of the very few goofy scenes in the TV show, and have comfortably exposed yourself as a moron on this. The essence of the wire is its scope, the eco-system of Baltimore, and its institutions to show America in general. I suggest actually watching the show, you do not even need to watch a full season (although it helps), but even a single episode and you get a hint of the potential of the show. …And that goofy moment (FUCK!) will resonate better if you have some context to put it in with those characters.
There’s just something typically american about only being able to show an eco-system through the eyes of homicide detectives, indulging in superflous, gratuitous violence.
If you want to see something that is a masterful insight into a whole society, I recommend the danish series Matador. It would also make it clearer where I am coming from when judging these shows. You don’t need violence, there is no victory in accepting that violence has to be there to sell.
Yeah and LOST is all about a bomb that might go off, therefore it sucks. Henrik has pretty much established himself as someone who will dismiss a 72+ hour experience having only seen 2 minutes. Take what he says about any television show (especially if it’s made by the evil Americans) with the smallest grain of salt possible.
If I had watched the 72hour experience and then dismissed it, I would be scolded for having spent so much time with something I hated.
If you really want to get down to the nitty-gritty, everything that I don’t get into shares the same flaw – a profound lack of interesting characters. It has little to do with formats, country of origin, length or other factors. Statements made about these factors are based only on experience, what has historically been the best bet.
From POINT BREAK to Oscar. I love it. I hope you’re right Andrew – would love to see Bigelow take home the Oscar, for a war movie no less.
@Henrik, “[Everything in American TV] shares the same flaw – a profound lack of interesting characters.”
Why open your mouth (well, keyboard) and prove you are an imbecile on this? That is about the most ludicrous statement one could make — Have you been really been watching HBO and the upscale dramas over the past 10 years?
The violence in the wire is far from the chief draw, in fact one of the complaints about that show is that it takes ‘forever’ to get any ‘indulgent violence’ going. But to understand The Wire, you have to take the long view, not judge it on the “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” investigation, which I am sure looks pretty idiotic out of the context of how those characters have been established to that point.
To quote Jay Cheel (or Matt Gamble) – “You’re An Idiot.”
And if that shuts down the conversation on this topic, then so be it. You can talk to someone clueless about grownup things. Come back when you have some halfway decent context, Henrik. You know, watch at least one episode from top to bottom. It might be a start towards some sort of enlightenment. You might even learn something. Or you can choose to stay a prisoner of your own biases. Your Choice. Take Care.
Whoa whoa, I didn’t say or mean Everything in American TV, I meant literally, everything I don’t get into in life.
There is some good American TV. Jean-Luc Picard for instance, and I’m sure, lots of other stuff.
You’re not playing fair.
“Have you been really been watching HBO and the upscale dramas over the past 10 years?”
Of course I haven’t. That channel does not exist here.
“The violence in the wire is far from the chief draw, in fact one of the complaints about that show is that it takes ‘forever’ to get any ‘indulgent violence’ going.”
Look, you can claim that I don’t know jack shit, but I did watch that scene, and I had to sit through photograph after photograph of a mutilated body, indulging in things like her young age, with her body positioned in the photographs in a clearly sexualized fashion. It doesn’t seem to me that the show is about a serious look into society at that point, it seems that it’s concerned with subversive imagery without meaning or taste. The language that then ensues reinforces this idea, you can say that the scene heavily misrepresents the show, but it doesn’t seem to be the case from what you’ve been saying.
Kurt: “Have you been really been watching HBO and the upscale dramas over the past 10 years?”
Henrik: “Of course I haven’t. That channel does not exist here.”
There is this little invention called “DVD” They put TV shows on it. (We don’t get HBO either in Canada, btw, albeit occasionally an HBO produced show will air on a Canadian cable station year or two after its release)
You didn’t ask if I had watched DVDs, but if I had watched HBO.
To that I can only say that DVDs cost money, and unless I somehow trip over something that really intrigues me, I’m more likely to not take a chance on something than the opposite. I’m poor.
“. It doesn’t seem to me that the show is about a serious look into society at that point”
Henrik watches the 2 second Joseph Gobbles/Julie Dreyfus doggie-style sex cutaway in Inglourious Basterds, then goes on to declare that Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie is not set in WWII, but is rather a Cinemax porn film. End of conversation.
Keep digging Henrik, you are looking more and more the fool.
@Henrik, “To that I can only say that DVDs cost money, and unless I somehow trip over something that really intrigues me, I’m more likely to not take a chance on something than the opposite. I’m poor.”
I do not have an issue with you ‘not watching HBO, or their programming on DVD, I do have an issue with you having extremely ill informed and yet still quite ‘vocal’ opinions on the subject though. It says something about you. Eh?
You know how it is, it is always the attacker who exposes himself.
Any 4 minutes of Inglorious Basterds are way, WAY more impressive than that scene. You’re cherrypicking your hyperbolic statements much more than I ever did.
I don’t get your point Henrik. Inglorious Basterds also has swearing, violence, and villains. Tarrantino is on record saying “violence is cool”.
@ I do not have an issue with you not watching HBO, or their programming on DVD, I do have an issue with you having extremely ill informed and yet still quite ‘vocal’ opinions on the subject though. It says something about you. Eh?
hm. I wonder if this comment will come back to bite Kurt on the ass one day. I guess we’ll never find out.
Tarantino is the sort of director who is capable of having his cake and eating it too. Also, he manipulates me in a way that makes me feel like I’m in on the fun, he has wit and humour, all sorts of other things that makes his nonsense stand out.
Violence is cool when Tarantino does it.
@Rusty, hey we all say things that come back to haunt us. We are different people now than we were 5 years ago, and whatnot. I’m certainly a vocal basher of True Blood, but I had the good graces to watch a full hour of the show before explaining what I didn’t like about it.
I supposed we could bring up Kung Fu Panda, again
I’m glad we agree on the cinema of Quentin Tarantino.
Kurt, you’re sort of known for being a guy to shoot his mouth off about things he hasn’t seen. It’s kind of your thing.
Just take the comment in good graces.
@ Tarantino is the sort of director who is capable of having his cake and eating it too. Also, he manipulates me in a way that makes me feel like I’m in on the fun, he has wit and humour, all sorts of other things that makes his nonsense stand out.
so in other words, it’s not just about violence and swearing. Context matters.
@Henrik, “You’re cherrypicking your hyperbolic statements.”
No, I’m applying the logic you are using with American TV, (specifically the “FUCK. FUCK. FUCK. McNulty/Bunk” scene in THE WIRE the above to a film that I know you (and others) have seen and will understand the idiocy of your technique in this particular thread. I imagine that 2 seconds of Inglourious Basterds is about the same percentage time-wise (in terms of 2h30minute film) as the 1 minute scene in the 60 hour long TV show, The Wire, so yea, I’m trying to expose the lunacy on how you are ‘pontificating about the quality of American TV’ when as you yourself admit, you have now easy or cheap way of accessing it.
Basically, you are being an ass. And today, of all days, I have no problem spanking your exposed ass in the lovely Row Three comment sections.
Thank you for your patronage.
And go kudos to Katheryn Bigelow and the Hurt Locker.
@Rusty, “Just take the comment in good graces.”
Done and Done, sir!
“‘pontificating about the quality of American TV’”
First of all, putting that in quotes makes it seem like I somewhere stated that was what I was doing. I’m not on a mission, I just chase cars – I go whereever you lead me. In this case we ended up at The Wire.
The american TV comment was meant in good faith, so as to not infuriate and automatically derail the argument from the specifics to the generel, but to clarify where I am coming from. To me THE WIRE looks like a lot of other american TV shows, I will concede that somebody living in America (or its northern outpost Canada
) will have a more nuanced view of how it is uniquely different.
The downright malicious glee you seem to take from this is a new development. I guess you’re at the end of your rope, just as I pushed Andrew I have now pushed you. The terrorists are winning. I am sorry if you did have a bad day, and get honestly annoyed with me though. It’s not my intention to get on anybodys nerves for the hell of it. I like being friends.
“so in other words, it’s not just about violence and swearing. Context matters.”
Of course it does? I have problems with tasteless exploitation of violence (ie. naked tits with gunshots in them being shown over and over), but not with violence in generel. The violence in Funny Games US is extraordinary, as is the violence in Pulp Fiction, yet for completely different reasons. Everybody will have different standards of course.
Let me ask this question, as a gauge: Are there any HBO shows that do not have action in them? I hear great things about this channel from America, but the shows are about mobsters, gangster, cowboys, serial killers, cops, vampires etc. I guess Big Love plays less on action and more on sex to hook you. But seriously, I like reason and rational thinking, and that doesn’t seem to be what is getting on TV nowadays, no more so in America than in Danmark, sadly.
And before you get into Basterds again, it’s a different ballgame, please allow me to not have to explain how they are different. I also like aesthetics and good taste which it has bundles of.
@ And before you get into Basterds again, it’s a different ballgame, please allow me to not have to explain how they are different.
I wasn’t inviting such a conversation. The difference is that their different. Since you haven’t seen the Wire you wouldn’t understand the difference anyways.
But just as context matters with IB, context also matters with The Wire. You can’t just reduce it to “swearing and violence” and claim you know what you’re talking about.
Did I do that though? I just said it hid its apparently deep and clever true meaning underneath too much of it for me to be interested.
Big Love, In Treatment, Dead Wood, The Wire. None of these shows have traditional ‘action in them’ maybe <1% of the running time has explicit sex or violence, and these are Cable outlets, so they can certainly engage in as much sex and violence as they want. No there is a restraint and a desire to balance theme, story, and everything else that you could call art. Deadwood and The Wire are magnificent, and are the furthest thing from a cowboy or a cop show.
@ Henrik, “but the shows are about mobsters, gangster, cowboys, serial killers, cops,”
A classic trap. The joy of the HBO shows is that the concept behind them, the basic window dressing is of very cliche stuff. The magic of HBO is that it does indeed give nuance and depth once you drop into them. Sure some of them are melodramatic at times, but really there is some real art to many of these shows, and they bely facile judgement that you seem to wish to pass without having seem them.
I’ll re-iterate that you are clueless, but at least you are listening at this point. There is something in that.
Having beeing watching a lot of Big Love lately, it is funny that sex is the least part of that show, sure you’d think that a show about a man with 3 wives would have that as the focus, but really Big Love is about balancing family, belief and modern living. It’s a strange and fascinating show that is so far beyond the ‘sell’ of what people think it is about. Given that by Season 2 and 3 it starts to indulge in a ‘whirlwind of melodrama’ but there are always moments in the show that are revealing to anyone who is trying to make a go of it in society, and raise a family. It is an excellent show.
The problem for me is that I can’t get past the ‘sell’ with a lot of these things. I got past it with Star Trek because of Jean-Luc Picard. Usually I am into things that have little-to-no selling points, unless I’m just in it for entertainment, in which case other things will certainly do.
“The downright malicious glee you seem to take from this is a new development. I guess you’re at the end of your rope”
No, Henrik, the better part of me would rather you stop behaving like an ass and indulging in what you seem to want to take AMERICA to task for, or whatever. If someone comes into your house making fun of the decor, well you either kick them out (which is not the spirit of Row Three) or at least you call them out on it.
Your debating style often leaves a lot to desire, you often bring out the worst in people, then you play all innocent. Sometimes you are engaged in the conversation, sometimes you are a full blown TROLL. I guess you get talked about, and you keep coming back. So it is hard to pin you down in a positive light…some times you take it too far, and a little humility and a little less passive-aggressive behavior (however much you deny it) would be nice.
@Henrik, ” I can’t get past the ’sell’”
That is rather shallow. Try harder sir, you can do it.
Do or do not, there is no try. We all select things, and I feel no need to keep up or anything like that, I’m perfectly happy dismissing anything to move on to something that seems more interesting.
It’s not your house, it’s a public forum man. I would never be like this if I was a guest at your house.
@Henrik, “It’s not your house, it’s a public forum man. I would never be like this if I was a guest at your house.”
Oh, I see, you’d rather behave like an ass in public than in semi-private. Nice.
Well, what you call behaving like an ass, I call expressing an honest opinion.
It is way, WAY more akward to have an honest argument with somebody in their own home after they invited you, than in a public setting.
Yes, but you can have an honest opinion and a civil discussion without making a jack-ass of yourself. I’m sure I wouldn’t have to look too far around these parts to find that I’m not alone in thinking more often than not, you jack-assery is ‘dancing’ around what you call ‘honesty.’
I’m glad you aspire to honesty. It’s noble. Try using some manners too.
(It’s hard out there for a scold!)
And apologies out there in rowthreeland for enduring this tiresome and boring comments thread. I hope you at least found it entertaining and not too wasteful of your time!