2017
'Very Good Movie, Which Also Could've & Should've Been Greater'
Detroit begins on the night of Sunday, July 23, 1967 - one year before the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr by a sniper: a series of violent confrontations between the Detroit police and residents of predominately African American neighbours intensified, after a raid on an illegal party whereby 82 Blacks and several other people were arrested and interrogated at Algiers motel. Resultingly, nearby residents looted businesses and vandalised property and set arson to public property and buildings. The violence dispersed into other cities and resulted in further deaths, injuries and arrests & burned buildings.
Whilst I found this film to be rather engrossing and suspenseful, I do feel as though that Katheryn Bigelow offers a much narrower version of events that are portrayed than I'd anticipated, as she treads a fine line between nuance and compelling. Which Bigelow does with Will Poulter, Algee Smith and Hannah Murray, yet, unfortunately, Detroit, through her dogmatic and often partisan direction, underplays John Boyega's character, which as good a performance as he gives here, alas, the ambiguously spurned Melvin Dismukes isn't afforded more screentime for Boyega to stamp his mark.
I couldn't fault it in terms of keeping me glued to the screen as the nail-biting tension mounts up, scene after scene, and as impressive as Detroit attempts to be, this should have been a tale that was multifaceted and far broader in its development of the characters involved and of their eventual fates. In terms of being behind the camera, Bigelow never shies away from portraying the truth in a gritty, no-nonsense way that isn't dressed up and glamorised.
Detroit is a good film, and an important one to watch and view in light of the murder of George Floyd and incidents of police brutality that have been the talking point of 2020, besides the Coronavirus; harrowing and powerful and conveying a bleakness that seeps through, yet I also couldn't help but wonder that as much as they focused on the characters, individually, there wasn't much depth in terms of how they were written. Performance-wise, it ranged from very good to great with Poulter, the standout. Sitting through the hallway scene as the helpless victims line up outside, as the bent cops shoot them one by one, was nail-biting. But after that, there were signs whereby with Detroit, I wouldn't say lost its footing completely, rather that momentum from the middle third wasn't sustained all the way through. & yet Bigelow's insistence to cover any further ground, besides the hallway scene and killings, was an opportunity that was being squandered. It just didn't provide much of a backstory surrounding the riots or the characters. The film descends into a SAW-like survival horror telling of events, through Bigelow's use of horror and thriller tropes to extract that psychological feel, which isn't something I have against. Though some will question the victimisation of the Black male characters and White female characters as being helpless and of whom exist as inconsequential, throwaway types, as well as the fact there is not a single lead African- American female character to be found during the entire film.
It is, like I said, admirable... but when it comes to the characters themselves, it seemed like rather than this being an emotionally resonating character-driven piece, Detroit focused more on the story and the killings. I think with a drama with a story such as this and the issues such as systemic and institutionalised racism, of racial inequality, police brutality, of course, these things need to be highlighted. Yet it shouldn't also mean negating the characters as they are a vital piece of any story, be it film, TV and in any genre, which is why in that respect, with the writer and Kathryn Bigelow, it is a little disappointing that whilst the characters galvanise the story, it still feels there is so much more left that could have been done with them by fleshing them out further.
Final Verdict:
Besides that, this was still a really efficient film; better than 1990's haphazard and brazen mess, Blue Steel, but also not as thrilling as 1995's virtuoso effort, Strange Days. Yet, I wanted this to be far gritty, greater and better than it should have been. It can be argued that Bigelow's take on Detroit is both opportunistic and nihilistic, which this is, and doesn't fully present ways in which racism functions, and with that in particular, I could see to it why this film isn't to everyone's tastes and why they won't be and aren't enamoured by and for it.
Overall:
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