After making two of the most acclaimed films set in the Middle East in recent history (2008's The Hurt Locker and 2012's Zero Dark Thirty), director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal place audiences on the ground of another war zone in this year's Detroit.
As with those previous efforts, Bigelow and Boal waste no time in commenting on a very relevant and fiery issue. Based on the Algiers Motel incident which took place during the Detroit race riots of 1967, the film draws equal inspiration from the more volatile than ever relationship between police and black youths in America today. Detroit is knowingly a very topical film, and one that was inevitably made to stir arguments. As with Zero Dark Thirty's depictions of torturing prisoners of war, the ugly topics of Detroit will undoubtedly garner intense criticism from people on all sides of the issue.
This is precisely what makes Bigelow such an effective director of such heavy films. Both Bigelow and Boal are willing to stir the pot without taking sides, opting instead to focus on dimensional, flawed characters and being completely unafraid to show the pitfalls on all sides of an issue. Unlike the average war movie which makes a clear distinction between good guys and bad guys and writing the script accordingly, Detroit is littered with characters that cover the whole spectrum. There are psychotic cops, decent cops, opportunistic black criminals and innocent black men. There are no caricatures in Bigelow and Boal's sans-filter view.
While the film acknowledges its own limited accuracy, Bigelow's focus is on realism. Despite the specific circumstances and arrangement of the facts, Detroit is completely successful in putting the audience in the domestic war zone that was the Motor City in 1967. Detroit is easily one of the most harrowing depictions of one of the ugliest chapters in recent American history. From the opening raid on an illegal nightclub which kicks off the riots
and the film's nightmarish centerpiece at the Algiers Motel, the danger seems all too real. More than once in the film, characters comment that the situation more closely resembles what they expect to see in a foreign war zone like Vietnam, not American soil.
The cast does a remarkable job all around, but the show is clearly
stolen by Will Poulter, who portrays the corrupt, psychotic cop that can
only be described as the film's villain. Even within the confines of a
film where the focus is on the events rather than the unique portrayal
of the characters, Poulter brings nuance to his role, knowing that an
actor needs to do more than scowl to be threatening. The others, including Algee Smith and The Force Awakens star John Boyega each turn in impressive performances, but Poulter will undoubtedly resonate the most in our minds with his smug, baby-faced take on a racist antagonist which has rarely commanded the screen until now.
The film's grim and realistic feel is due in no small part to Bigelow's shaky multiple-camera approach, which make the action sequences play more like a documentary than a feature film. The film's claustrophobic climax at the Motel plays almost like a horror movie, with a sadistic cop (Poulter) torturing young black men and two white women while making allusions to "helping" them. Taking place in a very confined set and driven almost completely by tension rather than action, the scenes at the Detroit motel are all the more disturbing and frightening considering they were based on true events. When characters are being humiliated, beaten and witnessing their friends being executed and dying on the floor, it's genuinely upsetting.
Detroit is far from being a perfect. More often than not, Boal and Bigelow's most explicit stabs at commentary break the film's "say more with less" approach, which is most noticeable when the characters themselves make explicit commentary on the topics at hand. Bigelow says more with sequencing and her direction of the cast than Boal does in a two minute monologue. The film also suffers from its sprawling ambitions, running at nearly two and a half hours and tackle multiple story lines while attempting to cover (frankly) too much ground for its running time. By the time the events at the motel conclude, the film begs to conclude instead of warranting nearly another full act depicting the aftermath.
Despite its admirable success at underlining difficult and questions and placing the audience directly in the crossfire of an ugliness that continues to sweep this country, Detroit will likely be missed by the movie-going public which propelled Bigelow's previous films. Perhaps the topic is too ugly and hits too close to home for an audience that more intensely craves superhero escapism. While I can't say I blame them - the film wasn't exactly a pleasant experience - it would be a shame if the public missed this film, as it forces us to examine a pressing, horrifying issue with no real solutions.
