‘Detroit’ film review: A strong statement

The movie, which paints a sometimes muddled picture of a chaotic and contested moment in history, is admirably clear in this regard. It understands and strives to dramatise racism not as a matter of bad personal attitudes or equal and opposite prejudices, but rather as a structuring fact of American life, an apparatus of power, exclusion and control wielded against “them.

Amid the fire and looting and the audio and video clips of Michigan Gov. George W. Romney and President Lyndon B. Johnson, a narrower plot takes shape, a real-life horror movie folded into a baggier film that feels, by turns, like a combat picture, a cavalry western, a police procedural and a courtroom drama.

The nightmare that brought them all together is remembered as the Algiers Motel incident. It’s a notably ugly chapter in the annals of late-’60s urban violence, and one that has an especially grim resonance in our own time. Three black men were shot to death — nine other people were terrorised and beaten — after the police and guardsmen arrived at the motel, responding to reports of sniper fire.

Don’t miss it

Detroit releases in the UAE on January 11.