10 Ways 2017 Movies Definitely Made Us Dumber

The latest movie from the collaborative powerhouse that is director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal may have had heaps of praise lavished upon it but getting the seal of approval from a few critics doesn’t automatically make Detroit the definitive authority on what happened the night of July 25, 1967 at the Algiers Motel.

In fact, there are several important factors and events both leading up to the Algiers Motel incident and in its aftermath that Bigelow and Boal choose to omit entirely. Like the fact that the movie cuts straight to the shameful, brutal events of that fateful night without the context of the inequality, unrest and activism within the black community that preceded the Detroit riots.

Or that there’s no mention of the People’s Tribunal organised by local black leaders to try the police officers responsible for the murders of the three young black men after they went unpunished.

Funnily enough, though, there is mention of the later trials held before all-white juries that ended up acquitting the guilty parties. And therein lies the problem with Detroit: Bigelow and Boal, as white filmmakers, have been very selective about what they’ve elected to include and exclude and in doing so have crafted a skewered, partial version of the events that took place at the Algiers Motel all those years ago

So, if you think that watching Detroit earned you a couple of white liberal points in its accurate representation of black history during that era you’d be wrong. Very, very wrong.