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For the B-Roll selection of our coverage of Kathryn Bigelow, we are turning out the lights, pouring ourselves a tall glass of blood, and watching “Near Dark”!
“Near Dark” is Bigelow’s 1987 attempt to meld the vampire and western genres. She had wanted to do a straight western but had to add something currently (as of 1987) “hot” to make the script salable – she and her co-writer Eric Red chose to add some vampires into the mix. Once that was set, she recruited a James Cameron-esque cast, led by by Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen as the main antagonists and made an extremely unique vampire-western that efficiently tells a story as old as time, except with a backdrop of a burnt out Texas countryside.
“Near Dark” is the story of Caleb, a young man who finds himself bitten by a vampire. He is then drawn into a vampire gang and given a chance to either fit in or die. Caleb must choose between an eternal life of murder or a painful, burning death of sunlight. Is it a commentary on romance? Drugs? Bad childhood influences? Does Bill Paxton ever not give 110%? Did Lance Henriksen kill some hitchhikers on his way to the film shoot?
The Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus reads, “Near Dark is at once a creepy vampire film, a thrilling western, and a poignant family tale, with humor and scares in abundance.” The film is currently at 88% on the Tomatometer.
In this podcast, Wes and Clay are joined by Amanda to discuss Kathryn Bigelow’s second feature film, and the one that put her on the map as both a commercial director and an auteur. Do the beautiful cinematography and philosophical pondering outweigh the lack of scares? Or does this film… suck? Sorry, I had to do it.