Detroit dir. by Kathryn Bigelow

Abstract

Reviewed by: Detroit dir. by Kathryn Bigelow Jacob DeBrock Detroit (dir. Kathryn Bigelow, 2017) The Midwest is commonly associated with images of solitary farmhouses, water towers, grain silos, and football fields that dominate the high schools next to them. In this view, the Midwest is rural and predominantly White. However, these images ignore the reality of the Midwest's diverse populations (in both urban and rural spaces), many of whom have seen little onscreen representation and much oppression throughout this country's history. Director Kathryn Bigelow's historical drama Detroit (2017) gives viewers a chance to reimagine midwestern experiences of the civil rights era via a recreation of the 1967 Detroit Rebellion. The film depicts events at the Algiers Motel, where police officers killed and tortured (physically and psychologically) both Black and White civilians. Despite the film's flaws, its resolve to showcase a more diverse Midwest is admirable. This review is concerned with three main elements of Detroit: its attention to historical context; its emphasis on the urban Midwest; and the specific form of race relations that it showcases during and after the rebellion. Bigelow highlights many aspects of 1960s culture and history in the film, from the supremacy of Motown artists to the impact of the Vietnam War on the Black community. An early scene depicts a homecoming party for a group of veterans; Karl Greene (Anthony Mackie), one of the Black civilians later caught at the Algiers, is also a veteran. Throughout its runtime, Detroit more narrowly focuses on changes happening within northern and midwestern cities—especially in Black communities—over the years leading up to 1967. The opening scenes illustrate the general unrest that created aggressive attitudes between working-class Black residents and the police, who often harassed Black people and businesses and committed acts of brutality. For instance, the primary police character, Philip Krauss (Will Poulter), is introduced onscreen by shooting a Black man, Leon (Tyler James Williams), in the back. The man had been looting a store and eventually dies from the injury. Despite such scenes, the film handicaps its [End Page 97] ability to fully represent this historical context by quickly moving from a broader view of the rebellion to the specific characters at the Algiers Motel. Sticking to a hyperlink style of storytelling for the entire narrative would have given Detroit a greater ability to depict how the rebellion impacted huge swaths of Detroit's population and how this event helped shift the media's images of the civil rights era from southern protesters to northern and midwestern disturbances. Because Detroit heavily focuses on the days of the rebellion and its aftermath, viewers are not given an opportunity to consider what the city's Black community was like before these events. What Black-owned businesses were most common in Detroit and how many of them were lost or damaged in the rebellion? How did the rebellion tie into concerns over industrial jobs or the lack thereof? There is a mention of the Ford Motor Company closing its factory, but little context beyond that line. How did the rebellion affect the long-term perceptions of Detroit and the urban Midwest, both within the city and among outsiders? Instead of such details, Bigelow gives viewers the same images that were available over fifty years ago: people looting stores, the burnt-out shells of buildings, police and National Guard troops making Detroit look like a war zone, and so on. Notably, Bigelow uses a faux-documentary camera style of movement, which adds a jittery edge to the proceedings that both matches and contrasts with the historical newsreel footage that is edited throughout the film. Still, there is much the filmmakers could have done beyond regurgitating commonly seen images of urban unrest in the civil rights era. Creating new or unique views of the moment would have provided a more complex perspective on these events. The movie's portrayal of the Black characters in Detroit and their connections with the Midwest is mixed, including both positive and negative depictions. On the positive side, most of the main and secondary Black characters are presented in a sympathetic fashion and not as foreigners or outsiders in their own...