Detroit (2017)

Review

143min

Genre:       Fact-based, Crime, Drama

Director:    Kathryn Bigelow

Cast:         John Boyega, Algee Smith, Will Poulter…and more

Writer:      Mark Boal

-Synopsis-

With tensions running high between the people and the authorities of Detroit in 1967, a police raid sparks an all-out uprising and borderline race riot as the disparate citizens of the city endure five days of madness, while the patrons at a local motel struggle for survival in director Kathryn Bigelow’s biographical drama snapshot of the long hot summer of ’67.

Having already established stylish and contemporary dramatic flair in her early career with underappreciated 80s vampire thriller ‘Near Dark’ and 90s instant pop-culture crime classic ‘Point Break’, Bigelow’s collaboration with former combat journalist-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal has taken her directorial craft to a new level—through engrossing and immersive biographical dramas based on difficult, reflective and society-changing stories. Now she ups the level of collective audience discomfort by applying her talents to confronting the ever present issue of race in America, tensely recounting a troubling untold story of its dark recent past.

Along with others in a young and large ensemble cast, John Boyega stars as local Detroit security guard Melvin Dismukes, who gets caught up in the madness of the ’12th street riots’ of 1967 after teaming up with the National Guard to investigate an incident at the Algiers motel—a local flophouse where mostly African-Americans are gathered to escape the violence.

Among them are the frontman for local Mowtown group ‘The Dramatics’ Larry Reed (Algee Smith) and his buddy Fred (Jacob Latimore), Vietnam vet Robert Greene (Anthony Mackie) and working girls Juli (Hannah Murray) & Karen (Kaitlyn Dever)—whose evening of letting loose turns into a struggle for survival when racist elements of the Detroit police, led by officer ‘Krauss’ (Will Poulter), storm the building looking for weapons and begin a brutal standoff which would scar souls and destroy lives.

Given recent events in the US and a growing sense of division in its society over the last decade or so, ‘Detroit’ could hardly be a more timely film or a more prescient discussion-starter. A stark biographical account which shines an uncomfortable light on a little-known story from fifty years ago, but which resonates well into the 21st century, reflecting a nation which has always struggled to honestly come to terms with its troubled past—and the lingering legacy of those injustices.

‘Detroit’ is a tense and deliberately uncomfortable watch pretty much all the way through, as it should be, depicting racially charged scenes of abuse and brutality designed to promote righteous indignation, at both the injustices you are witnessing and what it reflects in the history of American society—anchored by the sobering reality that you are witnessing drama based on real events.

The director makes effective use of her trademark 1st person perspectives, low angle shots, close-ups and a constantly moving camera to add immediacy and a jittery quality to the more tense moments, while relying on her ‘The Hurt Locker’ cinematographer Barry Ackroyd to vividly capture the period aesthetic, and composer James Newton Howard to expertly add dramatic tension. Meanwhile the eclectic and international cast are all utterly convincing as ‘Michiganians’, with Algee Smith and John Boyega particularly shining—but young Londoner Will Poulter almost steals the show as the callous cop antagonist and symbol of hatred in the piece.

‘Detroit’ isn’t quite as engrossing or expertly sculpted with excess fat removed as the director’s two most recent collaborations with Mark Boal, with a stop/start pacing which then begins to drag over the near two-and-a-half hour runtime, focused mostly on a single event—ultimately coming off more like a home invasion horror/thriller, designed to shock and outrage, than an informative and though provoking drama. Yet there should be shock and outrage when it come to these events, and the film does just about enough with the characters and the context to paint a painful, personal portrait of the deep and lingering effects of the sinister racial division and glaring injustices here—for the people who suffered them and for a society still feeling its collective effect.

As usual Bigelow and Boal take their time but don’t dawdle in acquainting the audience with the characters and their unique situations, before plunging everything into a pool of tension and intensity, but in this instance the story pulls a tight focus and keeps it on a very specific incident—only providing snapshots of the wider context to avoid breaking the narrative flow . . . until the particularly socially significant end that is.

Yet by merely contextualising the racial tension and painting a portrait (albeit a simplistic one) of how social unrest is sparked and can quickly escalate, it may be perceived by some in a socially divided nation as making excuses for rioting, particularly given how the repercussions for the police action played out in the justice system, which is actually one of the most shocking if not surprising elements of the film.

Despite Bigelow’s noble intentions, ‘Detroit’ will likely prove a divisive film, whether it should or not, and basically amounts to preaching to the choir, while fuelling the flames of resentment among those who will reject its message. Yet if this gripping, provocative and disturbing period drama has a social purpose, it’s to encourage Americans and others to be brutally honest and open about discussing race and ethnic tensions within their society, without letting the way they unfortunately manifest themselves distract us from the bigger picture.

The Bottom Line…

A tense, frank and confronting period piece designed for maximum audience discomfort, ‘Detroit’ may not be as polished a biographical drama or thriller as some of Bigelow’s more recent work, but this unsettling historical Hollywood snapshot should provoke righteous indignation, while contributing to the uncomfortable but necessary and ongoing discussion of race in America—although  it may just unintentionally add fuel to the fires of division which threaten to engulf the country . . . as everything seems to be doing these days.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Selma (2015)

David Oyelowo stars as Martin Luther King Jr. at a key point in the 1960s American Civil Rights movement, where a socio-political struggle for equal voting rights in the south led to the legendary Alabama march from Selma to the state capital Montgomery, in Ava DuVernay’s award-winning biographical drama.

Directed by Ava DuVernay and starring David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo and Tom Wilkinson among others.

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