MOVIES
BY MEERAH POWELL
NOT JUST BLACK
AND WHITE
Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit offers a
historical critique of modern-day police
brutality
here is a tendency in Hollywood to profit from
Black suffering — think 12 Years a Slave, The
Help, Django Unchained. These films are preva-
lent, but not inherently bad.
Through these types of films, Black directors,
producers and even actors can redirect personal, internal
frustrations and struggles into art. Thematic Black suffering
doesn’t always have to take the form of traditional slave
movies either — see, for example, the complex modern-day
symbolism of gaslighting and harmful neo-liberalism that
director Jordan Peele portrays in his 2017 psychological
horror flick Get Out.
The nature of these films revolving around Black
suffering — around the centuries of systematic racism
and oppression — is so personal and specific to the Black
experience that, when done well, it can be cathartic for
those who make such films as well as those who watch
them.
But the extremely personal aspect of this type of
storytelling also brings up an interesting point: What does
it mean for white filmmakers to attempt to tell these stories,
and thus profit off of them?
This was something, as a Black person, I could not help
but hold in the back of my mind while viewing Detroit,
a film set in Civil Rights-era 1967, directed by Kathryn
Bigelow, a white woman.
In an interview with Reuters, Bigelow herself
acknowledged the weariness some people, including me,
might have towards her directing this film. “Am I the right
person to tell the story? Absolutely not. Am I the perfect
person to tell this story? Absolutely not. But it’s a really
important story that needs to be told, and that was my
overriding motivator,” she tells the publication.
Detroit is a dramatization of events taking place during
Detroit’s multi-day 12th Street Riot. It centers on an
incident of psychological and physical police brutality at
the Algiers Motel, about a mile from the riot’s epicenter.
A multitude of characters get caught up in the main
plot at the Algiers: a tentative but essentially just security
T
guard, played by John Boyega; a group of morally bankrupt
Detroit police officers, including Will Poulter; members of
a singing group; and two white women staying at the motel,
including Hannah Murray of Game of Thrones.
For me, there’s something about films centered on
Black suffering directed by white people that automatically
separates them out as either being worth viewing or a waste
of two hours — mainly, are the Black characters written as
autonomous, free-willed, multi-faceted individuals, or are
they portrayed as flat, weak and in need of a white savior of
some sort?
Luckily, the characters in Detroit fit into the former
category. And it was clear when viewing Detroit that Bigelow
and company were conscious of this.
Bigelow’s direction provides excellent pacing; at times
she slows down the action to give needed space for excellent
character development, making sure the audience truly knows
the characters before the heated midpoints of the plot kick in.
Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, who also worked with
Bigelow on The Hurt Locker, adds to the personal storytelling
Detroit uses, employing frequent extreme close-ups and in-
motion shots, rarely on a tripod, as a way to transport the
viewer into the scene, as well as adding a brilliant twinge of
anxiety.
As far as good filmmaking goes, I don’t think there’s
anything inherently wrong with a white person making a
“Black” film, but in some instances, it can be an inescapable
distraction.
Take Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, for
example. I grew up loving Tarantino, but when I saw
Django in theaters, the whole time I couldn’t stop thinking:
“Wow, I wonder how many times Tarantino typed the
word ‘nigger’ when writing this script?” (Spoiler alert:
more than 100) and, “I wonder how many times Tarantino
actually said the word himself when directing his actors in
the movie?” (Who knows.)
It’s a decent argument to assert that movies like Django
Unchained are historically accurate to some degree, but
that doesn’t make the vision of present-day white actors
beating, berating and humiliating present-day Black actors
any less hard to watch. No modern critique is added by
simply saying, “Sure, these acts are horrible, but it was just
the time.”
Detroit’s 1967 setting was also just the time, but it acts
as an antithesis to movies like Django; in its horrific acts
towards its Black characters, the film conjures a critique on
present-day police violence, civil rights and justice. It says,
“Sure, this was just the time, but it was wrong and there are
events occurring like this right now that are still wrong.”
Realistically, Detroit would have looked different and
been received differently had it been directed by Spike Lee
or Steve McQueen, but that doesn’t take away from the
fact that it’s a brilliant period piece that shows us how far
we’ve come and how much farther we need to go. (Bijou
Art Cinemas, Cinemark 17, Regal Valley River)
8/11-8/17
492 E. 13th Ave
541-357-0375
MOVIES
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MAUDIE (PG-13)
An arthritic Nova Scotia woman works as a housekeeper
while she hones her skills as an artist and eventually
becomes a beloved fi gure in the community. Starring Sally
Hawkins and Ethan Hawke.
NOW PLAYING
AUGUST 11-17
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THE BEGUILED (R)
The unexpected arrival of a wounded Union soldier at a
girls’ school in Virginia during the American Civil War leads
to jealousy and betrayal in an atmospheric thriller from
acclaimed writer/director Sofi a Coppola,
3:30, 8:15
DETROIT (R)
From the Academy Award winning director of THE HURT
LOCKER and ZERO DARK THIRTY, DETROIT tells the gripping
story of one of the most terrifying moments during the civil
unrest that rocked Detroit in the summer of ‘67.
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THE HERO
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ANNABELLE: CREATION (DIG) (R)
10:50, 1:45, 4:40, 7:45, 10:30
ATOMIC BLONDE (DIG) (R)
10:35, 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 10:25
BABY DRIVER (DIG) (R)
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CARS 3 (DIG) (G)
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DESPICABLE ME 3 (DIG) (PG)
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DETROIT (DIG) (R)
11:30, 3:05, 6:40, 10:00
DUNKIRK (DIG) (PG-13)
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THE EMOJI MOVIE (3D) (PG)
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THE EMOJI MOVIE (DIG) (PG)
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GIRLS TRIP (DIG) (R)
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THE GLASS CASTLE (DIG) (PG-13)
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NUT JOB 2: NUTTY BY NATURE
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PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD
MEN TELL NO TALES (DIG) (PG-13)
10:20
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING (DIG)
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VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A
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WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES
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eugeneweekly.com • A ugust 10, 2017
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