Text | Yan Ran
Catherine Bigelow’s three recent works, from last year’s "Detroit", to the slightly further "Hunt Bin Laden" and "The Hurt Locker", cast their eyes from American reality to history, highlighting a creator’s " Problem awareness".
Instead of curling up in her own fantasy world, Bigelow responded to the times and countries she lived in through her works time and time again. Therefore, shooting "Detroit" seems to be a necessity. To ask about the reality of the United States is bound to go to the depths of history and see how the United States has become what it is today.
The Detroit riots in 1967 were one of the most deadly riots in the history of the United States. It was also regarded as a watershed in Detroit's prosperity and decline. This is exactly the time and space background of "Detroit", with racism tingling behind it.
Imagine what a "politically correct" "Detroit" should look like.
There are black people who have been insulted and harmed, and white people who are full of racial hatred. Everything is like a big battle between two species. Although this is in line with the current popular narrative, Bigelow abandoned this approach. With the desire to go deep into history, she tried her best to provide some different insights that were close to the truth of history.
"Detroit" opened with a stylized animation. It did not directly enter the story of the Detroit riots. Instead, it quickly reviewed a series of black historical circumstances and put the Detroit riots into a larger historical scale. Therefore, this is also a sign that Bigelow does not intend to simplify history.
Although the starting point of this film is still echoing a large historical background and using a panoramic approach to explain the causes of the Detroit riots, the director quickly narrowed his perspective to the Algiers Hotel incident to examine the history in detail. A tributary in the torrent, the so-called "seeing the big from the small."
In this Algiers hotel incident, Philip, in the name of a search sniper, launched a "game of death" against the suspects present. Intimidation and violence, prejudice and hatred, one after another. The point here is, as a white policeman, has Philip been demonized?
From the results, Philip is indeed a complete demon. But this film is triumphant, and it outlines a demon's "growth history" for us, allowing us to be convinced of the character's action logic.
Let's rewind the passage where Philip was touring the streets of Detroit. On the battlefield, Philip used this word to describe the chaos before him. Obviously, the scene that came to his mind was the Vietnam War, so he went on to say that we must let the people see what we did. Philip was obsessed with restoring the prestige of the state apparatus in this Detroit riot. This is the logical starting point for all subsequent "acts" of this role.
So Philip would shoot a black thief without thinking. Therefore, after learning that he is facing murder charges, Philip will doubly unscrupulous in the Algiers Hotel.
Yes, Philip's image is more than just a pure racist. In addition to Philip, Bigelow also created a calm and prudent white police boss. He gave an irrefutable reprimand for Philip's unreasonable behavior in shooting the thief, proving that there are still sober people in the racist frenzy.
This is where Bigelow is great. In the huge and chaotic historical scene, she strives not to be partial to any side, but she examines the tragedy with the greatest compassion.
Therefore, we will see that on the black side, not all innocent victims are. Security guard Dismukes tried to be a reconciler between white and black. On the one hand, he tried to protect the black compatriots who were in danger at the gunpoint of the white man, but at the same time, he would do his utmost to comfort the white policeman and bring tea and water.
Dismux was not a resister, but as a result, he was framed by the white police and almost fell into the abyss. More obviously, it was the perpetrator of the hotel incident in Algiers, the black man who sneered at the police. Although it was just a starting gun, it was clear that the black man's actions were completely "playing with fire and self-immolation." It can be seen that Bigelow is not worried about giving negative presentations in the description of the black image.
"Detroit" did a good job of shaping an image, but when the film comes to an end, we will find that the film is more and more prominent from one person's perspective, that is, the black Larry.
Larry has an outstanding singing talent. At the beginning of the Detroit riots, he confidently wanted to make a blockbuster with his choir partners in a singing show. However, just before they took the stage, the singing show was interrupted due to the turmoil. Larry reluctantly stood alone on the empty stage and sang quietly to the empty auditorium.
We followed Larry's perspective and witnessed the anti-climax of "Detroit". That was the trial of the Algiers Hotel incident. Justice was absent and fell completely to the white side. After this discouraging "climax", Larry's life also entered the winter.
Such a persistent dream chaser finally gave up returning to the choir, but retreated to the church choir. Because he couldn't get out of the pain of the Detroit riots anyway.
There is no exciting return of justice, only a traumatized lonely singer. Bigelow chose this angle to present a huge historical change, an unfair trial, and what a huge shadow it cast on the parties involved.
A country that has experienced labor pains may soon usher in recovery, but for an individual, it may be rewritten throughout his life. Therefore, Bigelow accurately grasped this point and conveyed two meanings: First, the historical truth may be forgotten or ignored by the public, but it will remain in the hearts of a few people. So, secondly, the era's devastation to individuals forces the lives of those victims to be permanently frozen at the moment of trauma, and they may no longer be able to ignite hope for life.
Larry is an example. The Detroit riots destroyed his hopes in this country and interrupted his pursuit of dreams.
"Detroit" left this sentence in the opening part of the animation, "Change will happen eventually, but we don't know when and how the change will happen." However, for Larry, the change happened, but he was powerless anymore. Enjoy the fruits of the change.
This may be the reason Bigelow returned from the "post-911 era" to the scene of the Detroit riots in the 1960s: behind the reality, what is the historical lead? How can we avoid the recurrence of historical tragedies?
Originally published in "Beijing Youth Daily"
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