Suspenseful and relentlessly stylish, BLUE STEEL is a slick, crypto-feminist thriller from Kathryn Bigelow (NEAR DARK, POINT BREAK), a gifted action director with a feel for the eroticism of violence.
During her first night on the job, rookie cop Megan Turner (Jamie Lee Curtis) breaks up a supermarket robbery and kills the gunman, whose pistol ends up in the hands of customer Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver). Hunt, a deranged Wall Street broker, takes the gun home and inscribes Megan's name on the
bullets; obsessed with Megan, he begins a killing spree. Meanwhile, Megan has problems of her own: her mother (Louise Fletcher) is being abused by her father (Philip Bosco); she hasn't had a date in months. Enter Hunt, who sweeps the unsuspecting Megan off her feet with fancy dinners and thrilling
helicopter rides. But Hunt has more than romance on his mind: he's grooming Megan for a role in his murderous fantasies.
BLUE STEEL's greatest pleasure is its smashing cinematography, courtesy of Amir Mokri (who has given several Wayne Wang films a distinctive look), but also owing much to Bigelow's distinctive pop aesthetics. The dependable Curtis adds depth to what might have been a stock character; Silver is
convincingly vicious and seductive. Lest we fail to take the film seriously, the screenplay (written by Bigelow with longtime collaborator Eric Red) drops some unobtrusive hints about violence as a tool of patriarchy. leave a comment
