Review of Detroit (2017) by Shpostal — 05 Aug 2017

One of the ugliest periods of recent American history involved the civil rights movement, efforts to squash it by incredibly mean and profoundly racist and stupid politicians and police departments and rioting that destroyed several neighborhoods in large American cities - Watts, an L.

A. suburb, Philadelphia, and in Detroit, where this movie details the horrific rioting and downright psychotic actions of its city police force, particularly one sadistic cop and a few co-horts, who advance on a motel, the Algiers after reports of sniper fire, a claim never proven, although the movie suggests it was a stupid move by a black man playing with a starter pistol, firing out the motel window with city, state cops and National Guardsmen milling about in the street below.

Three young black men would die during an incredibly horrific "questioning" by a deranged white patrolman (Will Poulter) who has already murdered one black person as he sees that victim supposedly looting a grocery store and shooting him in the back, and a couple weak kneed but equally repulsive "partners", who systematically terrorize the people they flush out of the motel rooms, with no proof of anybody's wrongdoing.

The abuse and aggravated assault, along with the murders, was a horrible moment in an already scarred and frightened country. As "Detroit" points out, for those who choose to remember 1967 as the "Summer of Love", hippie music and discovering the joys of recreational drugs, the nation was embroiled in Vietnam, drafting blacks and poor young men at a very slanted ratio, and the continued efforts of rednecks and other hatemongering morons to deny equality to blacks, and even white people who dared to side with them.

The senselessness of the rioting (destroying what little blacks had by angry mobs) and the murders is especially poignant and done superbly. Director Kathryn Bigelow makes the viewer almost feel like they are on the streets in the middle of the chaos, and the acting is great all the way around.

Nothing rings home like accurate history, and "Detroit" does all it can to be as authentic and true to events as is possible. It brings out anger at the cops who behaved so terribly, understanding for the victims, none of which had done anything even remotely illegal, and even embarrassment at how "civilized" people can be such monsters.

Sad to say, parts of American society still harbor the same idiotic racism against one another, with well meaning people of all races usually ending up the victims. Racism is universal, is present in every culture, nationality and levels of society.

"Detroit" treads carefully, rightly putting the blame where it belongs. The actions of few mar the efforts of those such as myself who are sickened by this behavior to try to reach across and be true equals.

Racism fuels paranoia, innocent people get caught in the middle, and nobody wins. This movie does a lot to demonstrate what NOT to do if you're in law enforcement, and does show us how to be dignified as possible under insane conditions, as the victims tried to be, and points out that at least some of the white officers and guardsmen were as appalled and revolted as the black community.

This movie will be one of the year's best, and gets my vote right now as the best I've seen.