A House of Dynamite
Kathryn Bigelow has always been a white-knuckle filmmaker. Her films are built out of tension, characters making big choices, and challenging audiences to consider what we do would in their positions. There are still a few of her earlier films I haven’t seen, but what I’ve seen from her 1995 sci-fi thriller, “Strange Days,” to this doomsday scenario film shows a director in control of her craft, and recognizing the personal stories at the heart of larger narratives.
“A House of Dynamite” dramatizes what would happen if a potentially-nuclear strike happened on the inland United States, and the choices that would require the people in power making. It begins with a mother who works at the Situation Room, Captain Olivia Walker (Rebecca Ferguson), who goes from playing with her kid at home to living through a nightmare when an enemy missile is caught on tracking. It’s headed for a major American city. All the decision makers are mobilized, and every scenario they theoretically had to prepare for becomes reality.
The screenplay by Noah Oppenheim moves from perspective to perspective, as personal stakes and in real life situations are played out. The President (Idris Elba) having to be pulled away from an event with kids. The Secretary of Defense (Jared Harris) having to deal with the idea that a loved one is minutes from being killed if this isn’t intercepted, or a dud. An analyst (Greta Lee) is interrupted on her day off with her son. An assistant at the NSA has to take a call on the run, but has to pause it so he can go through security. Attempting to figure out who launched this, and whether we can afford caution in possible retaliation. No easy answers, all difficult solutions. The shifting perspectives all end at the same moment, but the way the film goes from one to the other is not particularly sharp, and that dampens the tension during the transitions, but as each perspective is going, “A House of Dynamite” held my attention.
Bigelow’s film looks at the responsibility of nuclear warfare when the question arises whether it needs to be deployed or not. The film has title cards that describe how- at a certain point- de-escalation seemed more prudent, and scaling back on that type of weaponry is necessary to make the world safer. “A House of Dynamite” illustrates why proliferation was a mistake, both strategically and morally. No one should have the power to level a city with one shot, and no one should have to think make the choice of what comes next. This was a tense exploration of that responsibility.
