Hailed as one of the preeminent stylists of contemporary Hollywood filmmaking, Kathryn Bigelow was often too easily pigeonholed as a female director with a flair for traditionally masculine movies. After making an unusual entrance to cinema by way of the art world, Bigelow put her distinctive stamp on standard genre films like the Western-twinged vampire flick, “Near Dark” (1987) and the feminist-themed cop thriller, “Blue Steel” (1990). With the financial success of the surfer bank heist picture, “Point Break” (1991), Bigelow enjoyed newfound status as a mainstream director with a rather
