Détroit

The facts, not alternative facts but the facts. Once you have that then the artist comes and tells us, dramatizes, enlightens without distorting the facts. I was sweating when Detroit ended but I needed to go back and check the historical records of the events. The movie is a faithful depiction of the facts with the artistic eye of the amazing Kathryn Bigelow to illustrate them. The film will make you mad, it will desolate you and anger you and force you as an American to ask yourself, how can this possibly be? Detroit as an artistic venture is a marvel with a cast of fantastic actors. Bravo!

As the first film to be distributed and released by Annapurna, Detroit tells the story about what happened during the 1967 riots, specifically the one in Detroit that put the city on the map and drove the population down from its highs back when Detroit was the Motor City. The acting, direction, music, and pace of this movie is well done and should've gotten Oscar love.

Director Katheryn Bigelow does a wonderful job of creating a great deal of tension. She does so by cutting from one tightly framed slightly wobbly shot to the next. Each character's face floods nearly the entire screen after each of these cuts. This makes the movie deeply personal and almost claustrophobic at times. The slight wobbles of the camera as it focuses on a face, adds to the uneasiness and unstable nature of the situation.

What I'm saying is the movie is expertly directed. That's evident early on and remains that way throughout. The issue holding this movie back from becoming one of serious best picture caliber is the writing. The story felt a bit underdeveloped.

The brief on-screen text explanation of the tension between the Detroit Police and the city's black residents could have served as a helpful addition to a setup that followed in the movie. I would have had no problem with that. But after the movie plays for 20 minutes or so, I realized that the text was the sole source of setup.

That's a classic case of telling instead of showing. Movies are a video medium. Use that. Don't casually display the text on screen. This choice may have been made for the sake of time, but I think the filmmakers would have been wise to focus more on the setup aspect. The text explanation felt like an inconsiderate means of storytelling.

After the opening text, the movie meanders for a while, eventually introducing the key characters and providing an appetizer of their personalities, foreshadowing their upcoming behavior.

Moments like these showcased strengths in the writing. The writing did not completely ruin the movie; it simply was not an Oscar-contending performance, like Bigelow's work.

The movie overall is well made, thanks in large part to Bigelow's deft direction, but it's not without flaws. One that I already mentioned is that I wanted the actual movie (not solely text) to better set the stage of this city that's on the verge of riot.

The second criticism ties into the first. Because of the lack of stage setting, this becomes a movie that expertly depicts the what, but fails to fully deliver on the why.

I see the riots. I see the emotional toll that police misconduct had on the abused citizens. I see the guilt that certain uniformed personnel felt for standing by and allowing the abuse to take place. What I didn't see enough of is why all this happened. I wanted a more personal detailing of what led up to the night shown in the movie. The actions are clear and powerful, but the motivations are vague and weak.

I came away from the movie wondering what message the filmmakers hoped to convey. While the title is Detroit, the story has a much narrower focus. Were the clear majority of Detroit City Police Officers upstanding in their behavior, with only a few tragic bad apples? Given the choice focus on only a few officers and a select group of citizens, should I assume that these officers' misconduct was the norm or the exception?

Perhaps it was not the filmmakers' intent to answer these questions. Maybe they only wanted to tell this specific story, without greater implications, which is fine. I just personally wanted to see a broader depiction of the city's atmosphere leading up to, during, and following the riots.

This movie has a very intense pace. It's a story who had to be told and I believe that Directress Bigelow does it very well. In every frame there is something interesting going on and some kind of challenge. This gives a special feeling of how terrible things were at the time. I just have some trouble with the characters depth because it never really fleshes out the characters. Also some characters appear in a certain cliché way. You care and feel for them through the visual atrocities and because of the rejection of racism but not because you like the character on an emotional level. If you want to see a movie with a point of view and want to be emotionally moved then this is for you.

This film tells the story of a night going desperately wrong in Detroit.

I knew the film would be disturbing, so I have put off watching it. And it is really disturbing. I feel so so sorry for the residents of the hotel. No one deserves to be treated like this. This film shows me just how it is to be an ethnic minority in Detroit at the time. The injustice is just shocking. I sympathise with the victims, and really wish that justice could prevail.