Review of Detroit (2017) by Chris O — 08 Aug 2017

A disturbing and horrifying peek into the Detroit riots, even if the film overstays its run time just a tad.

From the Academy Award winning director of THE HURT LOCKER and ZERO DARK THIRTY, DETROIT tells the gripping story of one of the darkest moments during the civil unrest that rocked Detroit in the summer of '67.

Seeing this on a Thursday night premiere, I was fortunate enough to have the theater filled with only me, my friend, and two other strangers. It was one of those rare times where you basically get to immerse yourself into the theater experience without having a bunch of people there. And for a film as serious and dark as this one, having that silence and being able to focus on the film was a major positive. Even though I didn't love this film as much as I thought I would, I still thought it was a good film all around.

I want to get my prime negative out of the way because this film is more good than bad. I felt that this film was a bit too long and by that, I felt that some scenes were unnecessarily dragged out to the point where they started to lose their impact. I thoroughly enjoyed the first hour of this film. I thought it was powerful, scary, and downright devastating. When the main part of this movie came on, I still thought it was really good, but it was drawn out to be extremely long. It lost some of its impact and even though I thought it was effective for the most part, I can't help but to wish that it was shortened down.

That goes onto my next problem, and it's that I felt Bigelow never knew what she wanted this film to be. It felt that there was a strong, general underlying theme, but each section of the film spoke a different message. I thought that was slightly messy and if she had just focused solely on the Detroit riots as a whole, or just on that one situation, it could've made for a more cohesive story. Anyways, onto the goods.

The acting in this movie was really strong, and had many strong performances. I think there were conflicts on who the main character was supposed to be in this film. She focused a lot on Algee Smith's character, even though I felt that he wasn't a quintessential part of this film. A lot of the marketing centered around John Boyega's character, but he wasn't that big in this film either. I think Will Poulter did a phenomenal job and he was downright scary. Another big name, like Anthony Mackie, had little to no screen time at all. I think that they filled this movie with big names to draw audiences in, but the movie centered around characters we weren't as attached to. So although I loved the performances, the characters were a bit messy.

The idea of the Detroit riots is a devastating one. I think they did a great job creating this dark atmosphere where the world was just in hell. I think if you're very sensitive to racial issues, this movie can definitely be a hard watch, which is a good thing. I think this accurately captures the horror and the abuse of power that went on during this time, which is a horror in itself. It takes a lot of guts and although I didn't love this movie, I do applaud Bigelow for this attempt. I think her heart was there and I could tell everyone that was apart of this production had their heart set on making a good, impactful film.

In the end, I thought "Detroit" was a little underwhelming, a little messy, and a little too long. But despite all my complaints, I genuinely felt that this film had a lot to offer. I enjoyed watching it and I still think it's a well made film.