HOLLYWOOD history has been made now that Kathryn Bigelow has become the first female to win a Best Director Oscar. “There’s no other way to describe it, it’s the moment of a lifetime,” said 58-year-old Bigelow excitedly, at the awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
Bigelow’s film, The Hurt Locker (《拆弹部队》), swept the awards with six trophies, including Best Director and Best Picture. The movie about a bomb removal unit in the Iraq War beat Avatar, the highest grossing (票房收入) film of all time, to the major awards. This was sweetened by the fact that Avatar’s director, James Cameron, is her ex-husband.
Bigelow played down (淡化) her success, telling CBS, “There’s really no difference between what I do and what a male filmmaker might do. I mean we all try to make our days, we all try to give the best performances we can, we try to make our budget, we try to make the best movie we possibly can. So in that sense it’s very similar.”
However, Bigelow’s cinematic journey is quite different from the path of female directors before her. Her movies are low on female characters and high on guns and steel. They focus on men: their fears, relationships and rites of passage (成长历程).
Point Break was her breakout film in 1991. The action film tells the story of an FBI agent who goes undercover (卧底) to investigate a gang of bank robbers. It was popular because of its strong but flawed (有缺点的) male characters. The Hurt Locker is in the same style. The war film is about an anti-hero, William James, leading a crew of competing men in removing roadside bombs around Iraq. James is addicted to risk taking and enjoys putting his fellow soldiers in constant danger. Many scenes are full of clashing (冲突的) male personalities.
Focusing on these male relationships, critics praised The Hurt Locker for avoiding obvious political statements (something Avatar was heavily criticized for), and instead painting a truthful picture of modern war. And is there an entertaining end to the story of Bigelow’s victory? She won on International Women’s Day. It is, after all, Hollywood.
52. Which of the following statements is FALSE according to the article?
A. Avatar is the most profitable film in history.
B. Bigelow is the first female director to win the Best Director Oscar.
C. Bigelow and James Cameron were once married.
D. The film The Hurt Locker tries to make strong political statements about the Iraq war.
53. What does the first sentence in Paragraph 6 mean?
A. Bigelow has a similar style to other female directors.
B. Bigelow usually wants to work with other females.
C. Unlike other female directors, Bigelow focuses on male topics.
D. Unlike other female directors, Bigelow has made other mistakes.
54. The text tells us that ________.
A. The Hurt Locker aims to show how men love danger and war
B. The Hurt Locker presents the clashes between male characters well
C. Bigelow was given the award because it was Women’s Day
D. Bigelow was proud of defeating a male director
55. The article is about _________.
A. the unique (独特的) style of the first woman to win the Oscar for best direction
B. what makes Bigelow different from other female director
C. the award-winning film Bigelow made
D. the Hurt Locker beating Avatar at the Oscar
