A fictitious version of real events.

Rating: 1/10 (1 August 2017)

This film is what is called a dramatization, which is in keeping with the old the tag line "based on a true story." There was indeed an incident at the Algiers, and three young men died. Exactly what happened that night has been researched and debated for fifty years. Half a century and nobody can tell the actual story with certainty. This film gives one version, but that is not based on good evidence, it is a theory of what may have happened, and fictionalized to make for more exciting cinema.
I would give this movie a 10 as a propaganda piece, zero as a documentary, but more than one star for good acting which is unfortunately countered by inauthentic locations. The Algiers is gone, but much of 1968 Detroit is still there, and if you are going to build a set there is plenty of space in Motown, yet the filmmakers did it in Massachusetts and missed the opportunity to include as much authentic Detroit scenery and the presentation of real Detroit people as could be done with a film set 50 years ago.