Deep, emotional and cruelly real

Rating: 8/10 (12 April 2018)

During one of the darkest nights in U.S. history in July 1967, a group of young black boys and a couple of white girls lived their worst nightmare at the Algier's motel in Detroit. The day ended up with three dead bodies lying on a bloody floor after being shot by ruthless police officers of Detroit Police Department. The DPD was by that time 90 percent white and most of them with anti-black prejuices. The Detroit riots terminated 47 lives during five obscure days of fires, looting, burglary and violent doubtful police reactions.
'Detroit' begins with the DPD intervening one of those unlicensed afterhours bars on the infamous 12th street, where a big group of black people are gathering to celebrate the safe return of two Vietnam veterans. While the police puts everyone under arrest in the back of several vans, a mob of furious neighbors starts to form, challenging the police and throwing stuff at their cars, which triggers the riot with a violent confrontation and the later burning of several business.
However, Director Katheryn Bigelow, in a successful attempt to put the feet of the audience in the shoes of the innocent people of Detroit (and pretty much everywhere you can find black communities), chooses to follow Larry (played by Algee Smith), the lead singer of an uprising music band named 'The Dramatics'. After a concert is cancelled due to dangerous conditions, two of the musicians take shelter in the peaceful and chill Algiers Motel, where a safe atmosphere will keep them out of any trouble.
Before that, Bigelow already makes a statement that Detroit was a city at war, and police were not giving any break to anyone who looked suspicious and/or black. That is exactly how the movie works. By hand-holding the camera most of the movie with close-up shots appearing on the frame very often, the viewer can experience what was that night like and get immersed in the challenge of being black during the civil rights movement in America, where you could get shot under 'self defense' claims that usually no one could prove anyway.
This is a movie that reminds us that race has always been an issue in the American reality and that it has been closely tied to its history. There is no American history without slavery and race issues. Bigelow wants to make the viewer rethink and wonder how much have we really gone forward in terms of civil rights. How much can police brutality overpass the law and how far can 'self-defense' be believable as a reason to fire a gun to kill.