Small Axe Anthology (Steve McQueen, November 20,2020) Movie • Page 2

The bouncer in Lovers Rock deserves his own movie

 

Lover’s Rock is amazing. Feel like it’s in the same league as Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets in perfectly capturing the mood and the moment to the point where it feels more like a documentary (which was more the framing for BNEP) than a scripted movie.

But yeah, with all of these, McQueen is doing some amazing work.

 

This Reverse Shot review is really good and gets at the same issue I have with Mangrove. It hints at something more interesting in the first half, but just falls into the same kind of tired tropes as so many movies about racism. The racism presented in Lovers Rock is handled much better: the racism of the white characters is never front and center, but an occasional ominous presence that, from the perspective of the protagonists, is better to passively avoid than confront directly. The high points of both 1 and 2 are when the plot isn't moving along and the movie just meanders on the characters becoming absorbed in the moment.

Have not watched Red/White/Blue, but from the review it sounds like it suffers similar problems.

 

I started this last night with Red, White and Blue. It was solid, the performances of Boyega and Toussaint carry it. The film's most powerful moment comes When Leroy's father realizes he won't get his day in court and the retribution he is owed, which happens due to Leroy's own decision to become a cop. I appreciate the focus on a British story. Racism, and particularly racism in policing, is typically painted as an American problem. It's not. White supremacy isn't bound by geographical lines and the stories examining it shouldn't be either.

It certainly demonstrates the farce of most representation programs built around the idea of individual change without true institutional changes in tandem. Leroy's coworkers won't support him and his community won't trust him. There's nothing he can do. But it doesn't offer anything new around inclusivity and policing or push that conversation forward much. While it's important we know about real like figures like Leroy Logan, I feel this story is better told through the modern lens with his story as context to prop it up against. Show a modern colored person, inspired by Leroy's story, deciding to enter one of these programs hoping to make a difference only to face the same challenges Leroy faced. The same challenges that have prevented meaningful police change for the last half-decade.

Anyway, while not groundbreaking, it was worth a watch. I'm looking forward to diving into the rest of this.

 

Just finished the last one. I think this works best when watched in succession and not just as individual films. I don't know if any one of them would make my year end film list had it been released on its own, but I'd rank the whole thing pretty high up as a mini series or a season of TV or something.

 

what’s your Letterboxd I need to follow someone who loves Vast of Night as much as I do.

 

https://boxd.it/6ujZ

 

Mangrove is incredible. They don’t need to go into detail on why the police are racist: police exist to enforce capitalism, which the film understands as it lingers on property and possessions being brutalized as much as the people at the center of the film. The cinematic energy in the march scenes is powerful, and despite the relief at the end of the court case it doesn’t tie things up in a neat little bow. Lover’s Rock was also very strong. I look forward to more but it’s still hard for me to imagine it’ll keep up that quality throughout the anthology. If it does, wow.

 

“The police are racist because they exist to enforce capitalism” and/or “We don’t need to explain why they are racist because they exist to enforce capitalism” is not really a reasonable reading of what the film is saying. The cops destroy property and invade the Mangrove as a fear tactic, and they hate black people because they look and sound different. For a movie that depicts multiple black Marxists pontificating at length about liberation, none of that is spent on explaining or showing how the officer’s pig-headed racism actually serves some greater ideological goal, either of the officers themselves or of the broader racist/capitalist society.

TJ positively compared this movie to Trial of the Chicago 7, but they both significantly water down the ostensible beliefs of the people they depict to the point that movies about Marxists are thoroughly liberal. Both films are about the victims of injustice struggling to achieve justice in a system that is aimed harshly against them. So it very much matters how that system is depicted or what the movie explains to be the unjust reason for that system, because that is what the real villain is supposed to be.

Which, if anything, Chicago 7 actually does a slightly better job at this by showing that they are only prosecuted as a political publicity stunt, and that most of the people working against them - particularly the cops - are just nameless, faceless cogs in the machine. In Mangrove, however, what is depicted is: black people exist, the racist white cops don’t like that because they are racist, so they continuously harass them; the black people, in turn, protest against it, and then the white cops use that as an opportunity to make up a narrative and hit them with an even harder charge. The cops are not depicted as cogs in the machine here, they are the direct source of the conflict

 

I dunno man so much of this is in the cinema itself, sure it’s not in literal dialogue or exposition but I felt the films politics were communicated pretty clearly, if subtly

 

The second episode is better than the first. It is strange that this is being advertised as five films, as this was only a little longer than an episode of an HBO show. With that said, it is something you couldn't get released theatrically, at least not at the heights McQueen has gotten used to. Throughout the whole episode I kept thinking of a character from one of my favorite 90's comedies.

 

...Ok but how? There is tons of dialogue dedicated to the racism of the individuals officers. PC Pulley is referred to so often that I remember his name without having to look it up. You and others seem to think the more radical politics of the movie is clearly there, but I think the radical politics that we see are just window dressing for a much more cliche, liberal film.

 

I’ll be glad to talk about it more in a bit when I have some time to delve in, but for now I’ll say it’s more in the cinema itself than the dialogue

 

Okay, I have some time.

Mangrove is specifically about the attempt of Black people in a western capitalist country attempting to play by the rules. It is about the attempt of this community to live as they're told they should, to be a part of the community they now call home. One thing I really appreciate about the film is that it doesn't shy away from how different their lifestyles are from the dominant white culture. So many American films about the historical Black experience attempt to say "White and Black people aren't so different and thus should be treated equally". Mangrove highlights the differences and shows us that justice still matters, no matter how different a community is from the dominant culture. We don't need PC Pulley or the other police to express why they hate and harass this immigrant community, we don't need a dramatized backstory to explain their racism. It's abundantly clear and simple. They're different.

What's largely unsaid in dialogue but vivid in staging and shot selection is why it matters. Again, these are Black British people engaging with capitalism in good faith: they're opening a restaurant in the hopes of engaging with the market. In hopes of obtaining capital for themselves. McQueen opts to frame it that way visually. Rather than focus on the bodies being brutalized, which we've seen in countless films about race, he focuses on the possessions. A printing press, one of white people's favorite symbols of freedom, is destroyed. The police raid the restaurant and bash the supplies as they violate the space, and after it's over, McQueen keeps a long, still, static shot on a colandar on the floor, rocking back and forth in the wake of the attack. It harkens back to 12 Years a Slave, where he kept a similarly uncomfortably long shot on Solomon Northrup as he was tied up in a noose, struggling to keep his feet on the ground. In 12 Years a Slave, the injustice is as obvious as can be, few but the most deranged and blathering right wing idiots would even attempt to justify slavery. In Mangrove, McQueen focuses on the property, on the possessions. That's what capitalism is all about, after all, and it's a firm reminder at why these attacks matter: because these communities are barred from acquiring capital. Even when they play by capitalism's rules, the ruling class won't allow it. Some lament the latter half of the film, the courthouse section, arguing the film becomes more conventional in that moment. I understand why some feel that way, but again, it's in the visual language, not the dialogue. It's the absurdity of the wigs and robes and archaic rules as symbols of the institution at fault for all of this: these people in the ridiculous wigs are offended by the behavior of those on trial? It's absurdity.

In the end, all those on trial are found not guilty, which in liberal films is usually the climax where everyone pats themselves on the back. The system works, racism is mostly over, it's a happy ending. But Mangrove reminds us that the raids never stopped, that despite the verdict, things didn't change. The restaurant closed permanently in 1992. The film takes the signifiers of liberal films about racism, but this story is a tragedy. Even despite the victories that we tell ourselves mark progress, how much has really changed? McQueen and Mangrove argue not much, if anything.

 

Now I’ll be the one to say that I don’t have time for a long post but will reply when I have the chance lol

 

The third episode is a Hallmark film of the week. A big nosedive from the first two.

 

Lover's Rock using the song Getting Jiggy Wit It sampled broke my brain

 

Lovers Rock is incredible. Only one I’ve watched so far though.

 

Just watched Lover’s Rock. Damn, that was fantastic. I liked Mangrove and Red White & Blue but this was a step above.

 

I've only seen Mangrove so far. Thought it was great. I'm excited to watch Lover's Rock based on the praise in here.

 

all the way in

Blitz (Steve McQueen) • forum.chorus.fm

 

I've got to rewatch Lover's Rock soon.