Detroit
5 stars
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Stars: John Boyega, Anthony Mackie, Algee Smith, Will Poulter
Duration: 143 mins
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd

An animated sequence, created from a series of panels by artist Jacob Lawrence chronicling the Great Migration of African-Americans from the rural South to the urban North, sets the stage for Detroit. Director Kathryn Bigelow projects a chilling account of the racially-charged events that unfolded one night during the 1967 Detroit riots.

Although Bigelow has been making films for almost 40 years – including the cult classic Point Break (1991) and acclaimed sci-fi thriller Strange Days (1995) –  it is probably her latest two films which are the most memorable.

In the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker (2008) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012), she and her screenwriter and co-producer Mark Boal, tackled head-on such topical, real-life issues like the war in Iraq and the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden, respectively. This was done with a documentary, up-close-and-personal and often vertiginous style of virtuoso filmmaking, to critical acclaim and often courting controversy.

For its new film, the equally-powerful Detroit, the duo goes back 50 years in history, focusing its attention on one dramatic night during the 1967 Detroit Riots.

Five days of violent looting and fighting in the titular city, it was a period of escalating social unrest in the US, as racial discrimination was rampant, causing discontent among its African-American citizens. This discontent simmered until it finally exploded in cities across the US.

An experience that is universally harrowing and horrible

Boal’s story hones in on the events that took place a couple of days into the rebellion.  A party in a motel ends in tragedy as shots are fired from the motel causing members of the National Guard, the Detroit Police Department and the Michigan State Police to raid the motel.

Against all rules of procedure and basic human decency, a number of African-American party-goers are held against their will, interrogated and subjected to several hours of brutal physical and psychological torture. By the end of the evening, three innocent people are dead.

This is a story painstakingly reconstructed by Bigelow and Boal from first-hand eyewitness accounts, press reports from the era and court and FBI records.  Not without some controversy, with accusations being made in some quarters that a white filmmaker should not have made a film about a black experience.

Yet, the racial politics of the riots aside, they have succeeded in throwing us bang into the middle of an experience that is universally harrowing and horrible. The audience relives those awful hours thanks to Bigelow’s technical and storytelling prowess and unstinting sense of empathy.

The events that unfolded in the motel take up a great chunk of the film’s running time. Bigelow ratchets up the tension considerably as the victims, terrified, are made to stand facing a wall with their hands up. The police officers are led by Officer Philip Krauss (Will Poulter) screaming orders in the captives’ faces as a few of them are selected and frog-marched into an adjacent room for interrogation Those outside listen in horror at the shouting and eventual gunshots.

That the perpetrators are a group of young men in uniform, there supposedly ‘to protect and to serve’, makes it so much worse as they let their ugly and ignorant prejudices manifest themselves in the most appalling and pitiless way. All sense of humanity and decency is lost in their supposed supremacy.

Bigelow has brought together a formidable ensemble cast to tell this hard-hitting story. John Boyega stars as Melvin Dismukes, a security guard who becomes unwittingly involved in the events at the motel. Anthony Mackie is a Vietnam veteran whose military history does not impress his captors.

Will Poulter is the merciless police officer blinded by his prejudices. A superb Algee Smith is Larry Reed, the singer in The Dramatics, whose gig is cut short due to the riots. His and his best friend Fred Temple’s (Jacob Latimore) evening turns into an absolute nightmare as they get caught up in the chaos.

In Smith’s performance lies the heart of the story, channelling the anxiety, helplessness and anger of an innocent man subject to the most horrific treatment because of the colour of his skin. These are events which would go on to have lasting impact on his life.

That today, 50 years later, the news is still beset with stories of innocent black people being killed ‘mistakenly’ by the authorities, leaves you with very reflective thoughts at the unchanging nature of human prejudices so vividly depicted by the film.