Essay Comparing The Hurt Locker And Zero Dark Thirty

An epigraph appearing at the start of The Hurt Locker states ‘The rush of battle is often potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug’ – Chris Hedges, this quote sets the scene for the movie as we see the negative consequences that war has on the people involved. Kathryn Bigelow has directed the two war films, The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty in which she has a very clear style which can be analysed to make meaning of the texts. Both texts explore the idea of voyeurism and are focussed on the battle that the main protagonist has with themselves and others they associate with. Kathryn Bigelow’s style includes challenging the expectations of the audience and exploring the impacts of certain war-related behaviours on relationships. When viewing The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty I applied the practice of reading for Bigelow’s style using the principle of auteur theory, this provided me …show more content…
Zero Dark Thirty has an antagonist which the plot is centred around, there in only one antagonist and it is very obvious as to who it is. This allows her to form a plot line with a main climax occurring after a lengthy time of rising action. To find and kill Osama Bin Laden they had to track everything, this constant surveillance is an example of voyeurism. The climax occurs when Bin Laden is eventually found and killed, all the previous rising action led up to this and therefore a classic story line is created. Without a clear antagonist a significant point in the film is hard to create as seen in The Hurt Locker. Both of these films are directed by Bigelow but have a very different plot line which tests the expectations of the audience however they both are still focused on voyeurism as the main