Review of Detroit (2017) by Jason R — 04 Dec 2017

Don't believe in white privilege?

Don't believe? Don't think that racially motivated police violence is a thing? Then open your eyes and see this movie. White cops terrorizing black civilians has been a problem for decades, not just with Rodney King, not just the incidents that have flooded social media since Trayvon Martin. This sort of thing is embedded in America's history.

I am a native of Detroit, and even I had never understood the severity of this incident, and the depths of racism within the Detroit Police Department back then. Real life incidents in the modern south mirror exactly this sort of situation. Each of the officers involved in this situation was acquitted multiple times, and walk free to this day.

Is that justice? In many ways, the timeliness of this movie makes these modern incidents impossible to ignore in a discussion of what it depicts. Justice is not seen for victims. They suffer and die and have no recourse.

And as is seen in this film, there are no heroes. There's nobody standing up for the victims in the Algiers. There's nobody walking in to save them from the oppression they're facing. There's only the cops wielding their power with impunity, vengeance ahead of justice. Anthony Mackie and John Boyega play two tremendous pop-culture heroes, but neither one of them is rising up to stop the madness in this film, because it didn't happen. Only other situations saved these people from further embarrassment, injury and death.

The film is buoyed by amazing performances from its principal actors, and under Bigelow's stark, realistic direction, we can see the gritty hours of danger that these people lived through, and can empathize with those who had to endure it.

It is a hard film, a difficult subject to tackle for a crew, and even for the audience to watch, as it is easy to become uncomfortable watching these events, knowing they really happened. It is almost like watching the SS terrorizing Jews in Nazi Germany. But it is a viewing that should be undertaken, because the understanding and clarity that a viewer can get out of it can change a person's entire perspective on race and police violence.

Will this movie change he country? Probably not. But if it opens even a few eyes to what our society is and has been, its job will be done.