Intense and disturbing, “Detroit” aspires to present-day relevance by chronicling a tale of racial injustice that’s a half-century old. Yet the line drawn from those harrowing events to today is partially muddled by a misplaced focus, dwelling on a night of brutal police violence but shortchanging its equally significant aftermath.
Director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal bring the same visceral style that informed their war collaborations “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty” to Detroit in 1967. In interviews, Bigelow has cited the Michael Brown killing and subsequent unrest in Ferguson, Missouri as inspiration.
The story on which the movie is based, doubtless unfamiliar to many, is horrifying. After days of rioting and looting, police — skittish about reports of snipers — terrorized and killed African-Americans unluckily brought together at the Algiers Motel, as complicit National Guardsmen stood by.
The film has pieced together its own version of that history, incorporating a closing disclaimer that acknowledges elements of dramatization in areas where the record is murky.
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