Now, gentlemen, I am not saying that the white people of Detroit are different from the white people of any other city . . . I know what prejudice growing out of race and religion has done the world over, and all through time. — Clarence Darrow in 1926
Within weeks of the WWII heroism served up in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk comes Katherine Bigelow’s new film, Detroit. The contrast is stark: there is no celebration or victory in the latter film’s trip back in time to a domestic battlefield. The Detroit Rebellion began on July 23, 1967, when an unlicensed speakeasy club in the city was raided by police. The resulting riot generated an insurrection ignited by racism, police violence, African American unemployment, and poverty.
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War movies are inevitably part of both the era they represent and the time in which they are created. Director Christopher Nolan’s latest film, Dunkirk, is an attempt to send a valuable message from one time to another. The World War II battle at the center of the narrative has come to signify a sense of hope through communal effort — and that is obviously n indictment of what is happening in the world today: too many governments seem to be morally corrupt, visionless, and indifferent to the struggles of the common man. What happened at Dunkirk was about perseverance, sacrifice, and a do-or-die commitment to the lives of members of a community. It was a major turning point in World War II — yet glory was an afterthought.
Dunkirk focuses on the embattled evacuation, by the Allies, of the beaches
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