Reviewing - which, let's be honest, means passing judgment on - this film is particularly difficult. It tells the story of how Isabel Wilkerson developed her controversial thesis that what we see as racism at the base of some white Americans' hatred of Blacks is not, in fact, a result of racism at all but rather yet another version of a willfully developed caste system, similar to what the Nazis developed in their vilification of the Jews. I find holes in parts of that argument, myself, but I don't think the validity of Wilkerson's thesis should deter anyone from seeing this movie, or appreciating the very real talent of its director, Ava Du Vernay.
If you've seen her movie Selma, you don't need me to convince you that she is a first-rate director. This movie has scene after scene that show us once again how very gifted she is. And it is because there are so many such scenes that I ranked this movie as highly as I did.
As is evident by now - March 15, 2024 - the movie had no box office appeal. I can understand that. It's almost two and a half hours long, with no "action," almost no love story, and a lot of dialogue that sounds like a well-written sociology lecture. This would be a difficult sit for most people in a movie theater, where you can't take a break without missing part of it. And there really are no "throw-away scenes." You have to pay attention to everything that is said. I just watched it at home on Amazon Prime, where I could take a few breaks, and I think that made it - at least for me - a more comfortable experience.
If, of course, you can call a movie that deals with some of the true horrors in the history of mankind's mistreatment of members of mankind anything like comfortable. There are, indeed, very difficult scenes in this movie. But they also include some of the most remarkable in the movie. The lynching that we initially see as a family picnic in the countryside on a nice day is, in its way and without a word being said to that effect, a brilliant way of showing how "the banality of evil" operated - and, let's be honest, sometimes continues to operate - in Jim Crow America.
And though the movie is already long, and certainly not fast-paced, there is one element that I wish could have been developed just a little bit more: the thoughts of the plumber who eventually decides to get to the origin of and fix the flooding of Wilkerson's mother's basement. I'm sure images of his crew going to work on that basement at the end of the movie are not given that prominence by chance. But maybe just a word or two from him later that day when he goes home to his wife and children, and takes off his MAGA cap. Maybe.
Yes, I know it's long. Yes, I know it takes its time getting to the main subject of Wilkerson's work. But it's definitely worth watching, even if only in segments. There's a lot of great filmmaking here, being used to tackle a subject that certainly did not lend itself to being turned into a film. That deserves to be seen.
If you've seen her movie Selma, you don't need me to convince you that she is a first-rate director. This movie has scene after scene that show us once again how very gifted she is. And it is because there are so many such scenes that I ranked this movie as highly as I did.
As is evident by now - March 15, 2024 - the movie had no box office appeal. I can understand that. It's almost two and a half hours long, with no "action," almost no love story, and a lot of dialogue that sounds like a well-written sociology lecture. This would be a difficult sit for most people in a movie theater, where you can't take a break without missing part of it. And there really are no "throw-away scenes." You have to pay attention to everything that is said. I just watched it at home on Amazon Prime, where I could take a few breaks, and I think that made it - at least for me - a more comfortable experience.
If, of course, you can call a movie that deals with some of the true horrors in the history of mankind's mistreatment of members of mankind anything like comfortable. There are, indeed, very difficult scenes in this movie. But they also include some of the most remarkable in the movie. The lynching that we initially see as a family picnic in the countryside on a nice day is, in its way and without a word being said to that effect, a brilliant way of showing how "the banality of evil" operated - and, let's be honest, sometimes continues to operate - in Jim Crow America.
And though the movie is already long, and certainly not fast-paced, there is one element that I wish could have been developed just a little bit more: the thoughts of the plumber who eventually decides to get to the origin of and fix the flooding of Wilkerson's mother's basement. I'm sure images of his crew going to work on that basement at the end of the movie are not given that prominence by chance. But maybe just a word or two from him later that day when he goes home to his wife and children, and takes off his MAGA cap. Maybe.
Yes, I know it's long. Yes, I know it takes its time getting to the main subject of Wilkerson's work. But it's definitely worth watching, even if only in segments. There's a lot of great filmmaking here, being used to tackle a subject that certainly did not lend itself to being turned into a film. That deserves to be seen.