(:)(:)(:)(:) out of a possible 5 for the movie Detroit by (white) director Kathryn Bigelow in theaters now. This is the second film in a row I’ve seen that I would recommend but that I did not enjoy. The first was Dunkirk. I didn’t enjoy them because they are so stressful. Both films are tense and terrifying throughout and very well crafted. The similarity of course, ends there and the comparison should not have been made in the first place, apologies for that.
Anyway, some questions initially were raised about whether this white director would be able to create a film that adequately portrayed an African-American perspective of this terrifying night of psychological torture and murder at the hands of white Detroit police that this group of young Black men and 2 white women endured. Obviously there’s no way I’ll be qualified to address that issue. Click to the right for one favorable review from an African-American perspective– Daily Beast on White Director for Black Movies.
I appreciate the stress in Detroit because it put me in a frame of mind where I was forced to understand on a visceral level the fear, the distrust and the outrage of what it is to be an African-American dealing with (white or other) police. I already knew this intellectually. I was already furious about it. And now, post Detroit, a level of fear has been experienced that I had not yet imagined. I didn’t relish that fear. I don’t particularly seek out that fear. But I think it is important for me and other white Americans to witness this one chapter in the real life horror movie that continues to be the African-American experience.