GET OUT
US, 2017, 104 minutes, Colour.
Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Marcus Henderson, Betty Gabriel, Lakeith Stanfield, Stephen Root, Lil Rel Howery.
Directed by Jordan Peele.
Get Out has been one of the surprise hits of 2017. It has been promoted as a horror film, there are certainly those aspects, but it is more than that.
The film is the work of Jordan Peele, best known as a comic actor and writer with his television partner, Keegan- Michael Key the Key and Peele series. They appeared together in a film they wrote in 2016, the cat film Keanu, with its parody of gangster films and American thugs, Hispanic thugs, and everyone’s love for cats! This film is quite different, written by Peele but he does not appear in it.
The film opens with themes about racism, a young couple discussing a potential visit to her parents, he being African- American, she being white. She says she has not warned her parents but that they are very open and understanding. He, Chris, is a genial young man, a professional photographer, played by Daniel Kaluuya. She, Rose, is attractive and agreeable, played by Allison Williams.
On the way to her parents’ home, Rose driving, they suddenly hit a deer and encounter a touch of racism in the police officer’s demand to see Chris’s license even though he was not driving. Rose stares him out, revealing some fierceness in her character.. Later, with a stag’s head on the wall, Rose’s father, Dean (Bradley Whitford) declaims that the deer are a pest and this contribution to culling is something most welcome. Even later, the meaning of this proclamation seems much more sinister as does some action with the stag’s head.
Everything is agreeable, a luxury mansion, a groundskeeper (with a suspiciously vacant look), and maid (with a cross eyed smile). Dean has a medical background and his wife, Missy (Catherine Keener) is a psychologist who believes in hypnosis – and makes an offer because Chris is trying to give up smoking. Lots of conversation, a tour of the house, Chris unable to sleep and going downstairs for a smoke, the groundskeeper hurriedly jogging towards him, Missy still awake and offering to hypnotise him, he unwilling, but she stirring her tea and knocking the teaspoon against the cup. He wakes up in bed feeling that he has experienced a nightmare, falling into a vast sunken space.
The next day the family has a reunion, friends and neighbours all gathering to have drinks and refreshments on the lawn. They are all elderly, all white – though one woman has an African-American? in tow (who also has a strange look in his eyes).There is also a blind curator of a photography museum (Stephen Root) who is praising of Chris and his work.
If one were looking for cinema antecedents for this film one might say that it was a Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner meets Stepford and discovers Ghosts in the Shell.
To discover what that actually means, it is best to see the film, the psychological twists, the race issues, and, especially, a critique of complacent affluent white American citizens and their presumptions, and the heritage of racism and slavery.
And, for those who go to see Get Out because of its reputation, they will finally be satisfied as Chris fights to assert himself. Some anticipated blood and gore.
Actually, he has the friendship of a rather comic character, an officer in the terrorist police team, who is minding the house for Chris, but gets alarmed about the African -American man seen at the party, elaborates a hypothesis to the police who laugh him out of the room, but uses his skills at detecting to…
Get Out does what it intends, psychology, race issues, comic touches, horror themes, and does them very well.
1. Box office success? Human drama? Psychological drama?
2. The title, with reference to Chris and his visit, the house, the warnings, his attempts?
3. The countryside, the open road, the crash with the deer, the encounter with the police, the mansion, interiors, exteriors? The surrounding parkland?
4. The prologue, the black man walking down the street, the car pursuing him, Run, Rabbit, Run, his abduction? And the later repeating of the song and audiences understanding?
5. Chris and Rose, the ease together, the chat, preparation for the visit, issue of race, Rose reassuring Chris? The drive, hitting the deer, her challenging the police, arrival at home? The mansion? The groundskeeper?
6. Audiences identifying with Chris, irrespective of race, the focus on him, the close-ups? Rose reassuring him? The impact of seeing the groundskeeper, of Georgina and her strange look? Dean Armitage and his comment about eliminating deer? The parents, the welcome, talking, the tour of the house, the reassurance? The parents and their personalities? Jeremy’s arrival, talk, challenge, jujitsu?
7. Chris and Rose in the room, settling in, Rose as nice, Chris as nice?
8. Rod Williams, his work in the TSA, chat on the phone, Chris hanging up on him, his looking after the dog? Sending the photo of Andre, identifying him? Rod, chatty and comic? His work and detection? Worry, his theory, going to the police, repetition, their laughing at him?
9. Chris during the night, to get the cigarette, the groundsman running at him, Missy, the experience of the hypnosis, the teacup and the spoon, going into the sunken space, his waking?
10. The party, the kind of Stepford characters, the variety of types, white, elderly, their talk, about race, about colour, about muscular black men? Andre with a white woman? The clash with Andre, the flash photo, Andre’s attack?
11. The group playing bingo, Dean organising it, the results – and the audience later realising that the results were for surgery?
12. The blind man, his praise of Chris and his photography, the explanation, winning the bingo, his talking on the television, the surgery and the removal of his cranium?
13. Chris, upset, at the party, his response to all the people, the implicitly racist comments? Seeing the photos of the black men with Rose? Leaving, Rose and the key, not giving it, his being tied up, television explanations, the grandfather and his aims, the blind man and the explanation? The grandfather and the transfer, keeping the grounds? Georgina as the grandmother? Chris, shrewd, the images of the cup and the spoon, blocking his ears, Jeremy loosing him, Chris hitting him with the ball, the further attack and his hitting back? Getting the stag, killing Dean with the antlers? The attack on Missy? Jeremy and killing him with the lock? The escape? Georgina on the road, his stopping to help her, in the car, the struggle, Rose with the rifle and shooting, his going back, Rose and her death?
14. Rod, detection, working out what had happened?
15. Dean, his surgery, Missy and the hypnosis, Rose and her luring the black men, Jeremy and his violence?
16. The finale, Rod arriving, saving Chris?
17. The blend of the horror, realism, racism – and the comic touches? And the sinister family becoming even more sinister?
