Provocative fact-based drama

Rating: 7/10 (28 June 2018)

Detroit is a dramatisation of a tragic chapter from America's past, a provocative period piece. More than 40 people died during the so-called "Detroit rebellion", most of them African Americans, many shot by the police or national guardsmen. The writers aimed to convey underlying truth. Any viewer aware that the film takes poetic licence will have some doubt what is true and what isn't.
It's an immersive experience which places the viewer at the heart of the unfolding chaos. The cinematography is brilliant. Vintage lenses are used to capture multi-angle digital footage interweaving seamlessly with archive material. However, there isn't an authenticity of dialogue, a charge that the screenwriter accepted.
John Boyega gives a careful performance as the security guard who is caught between his race and his uniform. Will Poulter succeeds in characterising a corrupt, racist cop, 'Officer Krauss', a fictional character said to be a combination of a number of different officers from the Detroit Police Department who were present at the Algiers Motel that night.
Detroit isn't immune from its critics. It is told in a mode disengaged from the cultural and systemic forces in America that led to that kind of police brutality in 1967. Leaving the viewer feeling angry was the director's intention, and it succeeded.