This ended up being a powerful film about the August 1967 Detroit riots. The performances were really great, but it just took too long to get to the actual story. I did love this film, but with a run time of 1 hour and 43 minutes, it felt like it could have been an hour long short. Great cinematography work after the initial outside riot scenes, which used the dramatic, shaky camera method. You felt like you could be watching an older film.
In 1967 Detroit, a race riot broke out between the disenfranchise African-American community, and the over-stepping Detroit Police force. The Michigan governor was forced to call in the State Police as well as the national Guard in an attempt to calm the tensions, to no avail.
After about an hour of riot footage that lends nothing to the plot of the film, the real story takes place in the Algiers Motel. Two lifelong friends, Fred (Jacob Latimore) and Larry (Algee Smith) retreat to the Algiers after being evacuated from a music hall where Larry and his singing group were about to perform in front of a top music executive. Once outside, Larry and company boarded a bus home, but was engulfed by the riots and decided to escape the bus. the group become separated and the two friends venture off together.
Once inside the motel, Larry and Fred begin to meet some of the other tenants, including two white girls from Ohio, Karen (Kaitlyn Dever) and Julie (Hannah Murray), who have shacked up with a few of the black men staying at the motel. Upon meeting Karen and Julie, Larry and Fred are introduced to Carl (Jason Mitchell), and his crew of Aubrey (Nathan Davis Jr.) and Michael (Malcolm David Kelley). Carl and his crew seem a bit on the rough side, which puts Fred on the defense, since Fred acts as the body guard for Larry and his singing group.
After Carl pulls a prank using a starting gun, Larry and Fred retire to their room and Karen and Julie join Army Vet Greene (Anthony Mackie) in his room to play cards. Cut scene to a local grocery store being guarded by Dismukes (John Boyega). Dismukes sees a National Guard battalion pull up across the street and decides to befriend them using a fresh pot of coffee. While chewing the fat, the regimen and Dismukes come under fire from the direction of the Algiers. The squad not realizing that it's just Carl firing his starting pistol, fill ed with blanks, calls out "Sniper" which sends the battalion, local, and state police to the scene.
Upon entering the motel several of the local police, Officer Krauss (Will Poulter), Officer Flynn (Ben O'Toole), and Officer Demens (Jack Reynor), take over the question of the guests in an effort to find the sniper. They are quickly accompanied by Dismukes and Guardsmen/Warrant Officer Roberts (Austin Hébert)
Almost immediately, Krauss shoots and kills Carl and plants a knife near his body. This sets the rest of the patrons into a panic, and rightfully so. Seems that Krauss and Flynn are both racist, but Krauss has a real deep seated hatred for the black citizens of Detroit. Krauss and Flynn beat the hell out of Serviceman Greene, more so than the others because he was found with the two white girls.
Krauss then decides to trick the guests into revealing information by taking them, one by one, into a room, and pretending to murder them. He does this in an effort to scare the others into telling him where the sniper was. During this process all of the guest are assaulted by different means, mostly beatings. After a severe beating to Michael, Dismukes grabs him and takes him upstairs to prevent a further beating under the guise of questioning him one on one.
Officer Flynn is tasked with taking the two girls upstairs to question them and ends up disrobing Karen before Warrant Officer Roberts intervenes. This of course, just leads to a further beating to Greene. While Roberts and Dismukes try to keep the guests from further beatings, Krauss orders Demens to take Aubrey in the room to execute him as he, Roberts, and Flynn had done previously. Tragically, Demens had not been made aware that the others had not killed their guests, and actually kills Aubrey.
Eventually, Krauss decides to set those free who agree to say nothing. Greene, and Larry, being two of the only three left inside, agree and escape threw a back door. When it comes time for Fred to escape, he refuses to ignore the dead body of Carl lying on the floor in front of him. Krauss the shoots Fred twice, killing him.
With the event over, and some time passing, the three officers are being questioned for the killings. Flynn and Demens end up rolling on Krauss. At the trial all three are found Not Guilty on their charges. At one point we see that the detectives working the case put Dismukes in a jail cell, after falsely accusing him of being involved with the killings. We never find out if the is set free. Meanwhile, Larry can't find it in his heart to continue singing with his group, even though they have signed a lucrative record deal. The fallout of that nights events had taken too much of a toll.
These true events were no doubt extremely horrific. However, until this film, I was completely unaware of this incident, or even of the riots as a whole. It's a real shame that things like this aren't taught in school. We have to seek them out, or, if you're lazy like me, find out about them through a film. I know that here in Cincinnati, they have even stopped teaching Civics as a whole. We need to start giving our kids real world educations. Who cares about calculus unless you're going into a career that requires it. Then you can learn all about it in college. Sorry, rant over.
Anyway, i did really enjoy the second half of this film. Great, moving performances by the entire cast! Seriously, not one weak character. I don't say that too often. John Boyega has seemed to always put in good performances since I first saw him in "Attack the Block". I think that this is appropriate for everyone, but my opinions are not usually shared by too many parents with younger kids. I say, "Why not let them know what kind of people are out there?", from an early age. So anyway, sit down with your 5 year old, watch this film, and then have a conversation. Enjoy.
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