DETROIT

US, 2017, 143 minutes, Colour.
John Boyega, Will Poulter, Algee Smith, Jacob Latimore, Jason Mitchell, Hannah Murray, Jack Reynor, Kaitlyn Dever, Ben O' Toole, John Krasinski, Anthony Mackie.
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow.

Blunt title. Very blunt and direct filmmaking.

For many decades, Kathryn Bigelow has made films which have been very tough, and early vampire film, police dramas. However, she came to prominence as the first female director to win an Oscar as director for The Hurt Locker (2008). Her subsequent film was the search for Osama bin Laden,

Journalist Mark Boal wrote the screenplays for the latter films and has written this screenplay.

This is quite a long film. It is set in 1967, in the aftermath of the strength of the Civil Rights Movement with Martin Luther King and Selma as well as his Washington speech. It is also the year in which Robert Kennedy was assassinated as well as Martin Luther King. The opening sets the tone, the police raid (both black and white) on a Detroit speakeasy, moving the guests out, lining them up, but the locals resenting and reacting, setting off days of riots and looting, the local police in action as well as state troopers and, ultimately, the National Guard. There is an appeal by the Governor of Michigan, George McGovern?, who is to be the Democratic candidate, defeated by Richard Nixon, in 1968.

The central part of the film is most effective. The audience has been introduced to a young group of black singers, about to go on stage when the theatre has to be evacuated because of the riots. Ultimately, they were to become the Motown group, The Dramatics. The main singer, Larry (Algee Smith) and his teenage friend, Fred (Jacob Latimore), escape through the barricades but decide not to go home. They go to a local motel, The Algiers. The film focuses for a long time on what happens at The Algiers.

Those in the motel are fairly young, mainly black, two young white girls from Ohio who are prostitutes, a veteran from the Vietnam war (Anthony Mackie). The police, troops, Guard all set up in the street, aware that there might be snipers. In the meantime, a very earnest and upright young black man (John Boyega) is a security guard but offers the National Guard cups of coffee. Which means, when the crisis occurs, he goes into The Algiers along with the troops to observe and to search the premises.

Small things can lead to huge crises. This is the case here, one of the young men firing a starting pistol out into the street where it is assumed a sniper is firing. The consequences of this act are dire, resulting in three deaths, and the rest of the residents being lined up for hours, bashed, treated brutally and humiliatingly, the two girls blamed for being with black men, the Vietnam veteran assumed to be a pimp. The police use the bluff of taking individuals into a room with the others presuming that they are being tortured and shot. In one case, the young policeman takes it all very literally, not a bluff, and shoots a victim.

The film presents the local police, especially three of them, as young, arrogant, racist, bigoted. The audience has already seen the leader, Krauss, (Will Poulter) shooting a fleeing looter in the back and being interviewed by his superior officer. Krauss does not hold back but, when one victim is shot, he has to alter the scenario.

The final part of the film is the court proceedings in 1969. After the physically disturbing sequence in The Algiers, the court proceedings are to some extent low key – except for the audience indignation at how the defence counsel (John Krasinski) interrogates the black witnesses, asking about their criminal records, implying that they are to blame. And the indignation continues with the jury’s verdict of not guilty – with the John Boyega character having been arrested, interrogated, implicated in the violence even though he was innocent.

John Boyega and Will Poulter are British and Jack Reynor grew up in Ireland.

Detroit is released on the 50th anniversary of the riots. With so many deaths in recent years, police killing black men, Detroit, to that extent, is in no way dated.

1. The impact of this drama? Historical? American? Racism and violence? The mid-1960s and civil rights movements? Seen in retrospect and in connection with other racial riots over the decades?

2. Detroit city, its reputation, the visuals, the neighbourhoods, the African-American? areas? Tough, violent? The police, the National Guard, the state troopers? The musical score? (The Dramatics and their performances?)

3. The director, her strong subjects, tough visual style, action?

4. The facts of the case, the note that records were not kept perfectly and so some aspects fictionalised and reconstructed? The final information?

5. The setting, blacks and whites, prejudice? The background of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement, by this stage? The opening raid, the black-and-white police, the plant in the club, his posing, the drama of his being beaten to intimidate the visitors? The police, the guests, their being ousted? The treatment? The people lined up outside? Confusion, violence, the locals, watching, the reaction, the emergence of rights?

6. The captions for the succeeding days of rights? The crowds, fever pitch, the role of the police, calling in the state troopers, the National Guard, the politicians, Governor of Michigan? George Mc Govern? The details of the rights, guns, flames, bashings, polluting? The arrests?

7. Krauss and his group, the pursuit of the rioters, the glitter and pursuing him, tripping him, shooting him in the back? His getting out of the truck, bleeding to death? The authorities, interviewing Krauss, despising him? Letting him go?

8. The focus on Larry, the music, his group, The Dramatics? Practice, singers, the Motown clips, performing in the theatre? Music and Motown? The characters of the group, Larry and his leadership, his singing, his energy? The group and their hopes? Fred, support, young? About to go on stage, listening to the previous group, the audience, black and white, the applause? The hall having to be cleared? And Larry singing to the empty theatre?

9. The Algiers, Larry and Fred, getting through the crowds, with the police, their excuses, getting the room, cheap? The group in the hotel, joking, friendship? The man with the starter’s gun, fooling around, shooting as if he were a sniper? Reactions, the consequences? The two girls, from Ohio, at the pool, prostitutes, their targets? Maureen, the military man and his presence? Larry and Fred, going to the pool, the shops, the police and the disruption?

10. Krauss and his men, tough, the presence of the National Guard? The state troopers? Keeping vigil outside the Algiers and the other buildings? The sniper alert, the gunfire, the raid?

11. The character of Dismukes? Ordinary, upright? Serious security guard? His colleague? The shop? The guards, bringing them coffee, the bonding? The action, his going into the Algiers? Observing the action, his participation? Doing his job? His second job, the detectives arriving, his arrest, the interviews, his confusion, answers, the suspicions? His being blamed?

12. The focus on The Algiers? The sniper and his starter’s gun? The effect? Audience response to each of the characters, to the consequences, the fear, the bashings, being urged to confess, the resistance?

13. Krauss and his attitude, authoritarian, prejudiced, racist? His associates? The guards observing? The search for the gun, the failure to find it? Dismukes and his searching for the gun, not finding it? Krauss and his demands, the brutality, the beatings? The shooting of the man with the starting gun? Taking the others into the room, the bluff, urging the National Guardsman to pretend to shoot one? Demens, literal, his actually shooting the victim rather than the bluff? Krauss and his response, covering himself?

14. The girls, their fears, with the black men, their being despised by the police, treated brutally, taken into the room, the girl with her clothes torn, humiliated? Brought downstairs, brought to the room?

15. Larry and Fred, their fear, Fred and his age, Larry and the escape, going through the building, the dangers, returning to the lineup? Larry and his being interviewed, the bluff, his being let go? Fred, not realising the bluff, speaking the truth and his being shot? The phone calls to Larry, the girlfriend, the parents, the father and his disbelief, the grief, the funeral?

16. Greene, military man, his being interviewed, treatment, being accused of being a pimp, his producing his documents, Krauss and his spurning Greene, his airborne service? The treatment, his fears, being let go?

17. The police investigation, the three, the interviews, the two police and their personalities, their attitudes towards the killings, the confessing to the authorities? Krauss and his trying to escape, being interviewed by the chief?

18. The aftermath, the effect of these events in people’s lives? The Dramatics and the call in the night, the producer, the possibility of the contract, Larry and his unwillingness to sing? The Dramatics and the later success?

19. The two years between the events and the court proceedings? The defendants, all well- dressed? The lawyer, defence, his appearance (hairstyle changed every time)? His tough interrogation, his harassing the witnesses, the racist implications of his questions about their criminality?

20. The witnesses, their fears, confusion, criminal backgrounds, the relevance? Larry and his answering back? The applause from the African Americans?

21. The jury, the judge, the not guilty verdicts? The reactions, the African Americans, the media?

22. Larry’s story, applying to the choir, considered too good, his appeal, the sequence of his singing in the church?

23. The film made 50 years after the events, the significance of 1967, deaths of Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, the Vietnam war, riots? The impact of the film and the
retrospect?