In the past years when the Black Lives Matter movement began to tackle the long-running problem of violent and unintentional police action directed at blacks, American media has steadily strengthened with regard to black racism.
Recently, however, there has been a new trend in police brutality. In addition to addressing the psychological consequences of institutionalized apartheid, they talk about how victims are treated with a decision that is embedded in a crisis of conscience. Although black victims face the consequences of violent clashes with police, they are forced to make moral decisions about their answers, and to consider how asking for justice can affect their relationships with their communities.
Choosing sides
2019 Black and Blue and in 2018 Monsters and Men both of them open through scenes where a cop meets a black escort. In the former, Alicia West (Naomie Harris) runs into a very white place; Later, Dennis (John David Washington) drives while singing on the radio. Both of these conflicts are against white police, with both characters proving to be police officers and the obvious fact that working for the law does not protect them from racial justice.
Both actors believe in their roles as peacemakers and lawyers, but both films suggest that the black cup is a form of complexity. In Black and Blue, Alicia was charged with the murder of a black male police officer, followed by police and members of the black community. The movie doesn't go crazy; Alicia worries, the 108-minute ordeal is shaped by characters trying to force her into one camp or another. Some black characters call him Uncle Tom, and another officer asks him, “Do you think they are your people? … You are blue now. ”Nexus Alicia’s argument is not that she witnessed the crime, but refuses to choose between her identity as a black woman and her position with the police. In the end, his devotion to the truth saves him, so he should not choose. He can remain part of his community while maintaining his reputation as a police officer.
Of the incomparable art Monsters and Men, the problem is not easily solved. The police shooting of an unarmed black man affects the whole community, with Dennis facing protesters, hearing of seemingly retaliatory police killings, and attempts to protect himself and other police officers at lunchtime, as his friend thanked him for police accountability and shows his solidarity. When brought in to interrogate during a white supremacist investigation that killed the black man, Dennis decides not to speak. It's still unclear why – whether it's related to his job, concerned about the act of retaliation, or a combination of the two. But the movie teaches viewers to look at his face in every rotation, looking for clues on how the scales throw him, and how he will inevitably do it.
The cycle of martyrdom
However, these types of "black police conflict" are well known and predictable. The most shocking trend with these movies is that the people who are treated with police brutality – not the police, but the ordinary people – are caught up in similar behavioral situations. In Monsters and Men, Dennis's story is just one of a series of narrative, all connected by the same shot. In the first, a witness named Manny (Anthony Ramos), a friend of the victim, posts a picture of his execution on the phone. After that he will have to choose whether to reveal the truth in the memory of his friend and the public, or to stay safe and not make waves.
The final story of the film asks the same question of a young athlete, Zyrick (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who has a bright future as a pro baseball player, but struggles to decide whether to take action in the police box against police brutality, and if so, how. He wonders if he should risk his future for something he considers important in behavior. Monsters and Men it looks like it reacts to the action, but it doesn't make Dennis the confidant of deciding not to portray a white police officer. And it's not glorious to take action; Manny takes action, but suffers the consequences. What is surprising is how director-director Reinaldo Marcus Green changes their decisions to justify actual acts of violence – and perhaps even worse ones, as they face the external or psychological consequences of their choices.
The same decision stays in the rubble of the other two 2018 movies. In Blindspotting, a young man named Collin (Daveed Diggs), who is in his last days of crime and spends his days working with a moving company with his best friend, sees a white policeman shooting a black man without a gun in the back, and he has to decide whether he should take it back when he encounters a police officer in danger. In Hate You Give, a girl named Starr Carter (Powers Stenberg), a sophisticated student standing in the queue between her white school, high school, and her black, low school community, sees her young friend shot by a police officer, and has to decide whether to speak out. At the last minute of the film's controversy, it actually stands in the middle of an armed stand-up between members of the black community and the white police. Like Alicia West, Starr has been awarded the myth of a fairy tale: her world has been beautifully integrated into a hopeful solution because of her loyalty to justice and truth to all.
But we aim to pay attention to the contention of these characters and investigate their questions on this type of pain, even if they choose what seems to be the best moral choice, and it only involves difficulties. Opponents of these films become versions of Santa Sebastian, or Prometheus, imprisoned in a martyrdom cycle. The filmmakers who put their black characters among the moralists, admiring the psychological test of the resilience of finding out their plight, are facing a treacherous cage. In order to depict the complex, irrational imagery of brutal police and its effects on the black community, artists must look at how people infiltrate and exploit such violence.
But creators should also realize that the art that evokes sadness and pain can be a form of violence intended for the audience. Best of all, it would be a necessary pinprick, enough to cause injury to the audience for the injury tied to the screen creatively, to bring them catharsis and to heal themselves afterwards. At worst, it is a very simple play, re-creating the damage in order to position the audience as victims. In stories where there is no catharsis or solution, audience members who sympathize with the symbolism may end up feeling that darkness and torture are the same.
Escapism and tragedy
2019 Queen & Slim – which has just arrived on VOD platforms – is recognized by these rules. At times, it is almost overwhelming, releasing and humiliating to the point of frustration, in its story about a black couple trying to survive. Their characters are also plagued by racist police brutality, but when they work, they don't worry about the consequences of behavior, or worry about how to redefine themselves in their society.
In this movie, two black strangers, Queens (Jodie Turner-Smith) and Slim (Daniel Kaluuya), meet on Tinder Day. But when they were forcefully dragged home by a white officer with a burning finger, the conflict ended with Slim shooting and accidentally killing the officer. The Queen quickly decides that she should run away, since the powerful races prove they have no hope for justice. The subsequent escape from the world from the law is also like a love story. Aside from a brief consideration, the couple does not endorse the outcome of the behavior. Their significance is clear – to save themselves while the media labels them as criminals of criminal operations.
Although the film does not question the morality of the shooting and escapes the minds of its critics, as those other recent films of brutal police do, he observes the article through practical characters. Other black characters – a bartender at a bar overlooking a wall to the south, and a hot-headed man, snatching a man out of a fast-food restaurant – both praised the opponents' decisions. A young black policeman who takes his side with them instead of the police. A kind, reckless car repairman tells the couple that he can't help them because they disagree with their actions, but his young star son has a different answer.
Although the situation is politically correct, and the people around them are politically accountable, Queens and Slim are very focused on themselves and their relationships. While planning their escape, they take the time to drink and dance a bit in the barrel, and talk about what they rely on for each person they love. As the protests were triggered by their escalation nearby, Queens and Slim had sex for the first time. One character says that it doesn't matter how their stories end, because whatever they are, they are immortal, and they are true; we see pictures of them later, redesigned as a political message.
Unlike other films in this category, Queen & Slim it does not emphasize the moral importance of the victims. At first, the romance of the film and the moments of humor make you feel like a dream to escape: two black people aim for a life free of racial hatred and its consequences. But it is a dream to escape mentally again. They love each other, innocent in a world of racism where their defensive act was allowed. They download freedom and happiness wherever they can find it.
That idea is what it does Queen & SlimThe end times are very traumatic, and perhaps even harmful to the watching Black audience. Not only does this story end in tragedy; that the narrative of black love and the assumption of black freedom is genuinely destroyed by a play worthy of Greek tragedy. In addition, it is a story that has been filmed and booked with white violence, reinforcing the idea that there is no space for blackness to exist without the boundaries of white antipathy. Is the narrative about black love and blackness freed from the physical and psychological effects of systemic racism is undeniable, or fictional?
Showing to the audience
All these films are brutal police officers, with their varying degrees of quality and success, question the ethical obligations. What do the filmmakers owe in this regard, the Black Lives Matter movement, the real victims of police brutality, and the black audience watching these black screen deaths? Unlike the industry The Green Books, moving white supremacists and other white supremacists "as a way to guarantee fan service to white viewers, most of these violent films that seem less favorable to black viewers than whites, however in their provocative times. movies can seem like they want to wow their viewers, too – especially for black viewers, who may be skeptical of how they will react to this type of violence?
If catharsis is objective, it is a dream to redefine Queen & Slim or the idea of a reconciliation restoration of Nate Parker that has not yet been released American leather they destroy the intended emotions as a result of the claim and compliance, harming the black audience in the process. That doesn't mean there is no room for such films, or hard work. But if part of the core of these films involves that black Americans must bear not only their injuries, but also the double-deciding behavior that they seek justice for, these films can put their viewers in even greater disadvantage. perpetuating harmful tips.
What this film needs is a story that also responds to white viewers, and stories about black sorrow that transcend full suffering. Sometimes, we need films where darkness translates into freedom and escape, comfort and happiness. Blindspotting, Monsters and Men, again Queen & Slim No doubt it's done with mastery and finesse, but it's easy to be scared of the movie culture where violence against blacks and their subsequent behavior only modus operandi. Perhaps no stories of black romance can end up happy. Maybe there are no dark stories of racial violence that can take its heroes out of the moral disaster that comes with it.
But in reality, we see a very broad spectrum of films on this subject. They should not believe in the brutality and pain of the racial system, as that reflects the real life of black America. But neither should the black characters be brutally harvested for the Hollywood show, their deaths have been dulled and stifled to create a giant, victim who is slowly being pushed down to the maudlin points. And, of course, we have been given the emotionally complex industries that face their complex ethical questions without being fully defined by their vulnerability. Either characters are empowered to emulate or in spite of harmful programs in the workplace, without being carried over by the severe moral restrictions caused by other people's violence. In short, variety.
What we now see is a kind of Newton's law of distorted racial politics: in every white violent act against black people, a black man will face an equal and conflicting moral responsibility. The vast majority of workers – physically, emotionally, mentally, mentally – come about being black in America, so it's easy for a fairy to put together those issues, or make them equal to the real idea. But at some point, we can imagine, and hopefully, that filmmakers can learn to include tired tracks, a lot of grief, and maybe even happiness.
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