You are clearly missing the point. the fact that you think 2 minutes of text is sufficient in explaining the cause of a riot while showing black people beat up, killed and dominated for over two hours is...interesting.
How about everyone's real names and pictures being used at the end except for the actual murderers (names never used; photos blurred out)? I guess the few lines of text explaining they never worked active duty again was sufficient for that as well.
Like I previously mentioned, I loved that scene and dialogue. It was truly brilliant. And I agree, there's no way to make this a win for "us", but it could've been done with a lot more context and background in my opinion. If all they wanted to show was the motel, then call it "The Algiers" or some such. People, especially people with no depth, won't get the depths of the dialogue of that one scene that you explained. All they are going to see black people getting murdered, black people begging, black people partying and singing, black people stealing, etc.
The fact is, though, that if they'd called it "The Algiers" or "The Algiers Motel Incident", or any title specific to the massacre at the motel, the movie would have had a harder time getting people's attention.
Calling it "Detroit" and focusing on the "Detroit Riots" (which everyone has already heard of) is much more effective. Is it deceptive marketing? To an extent. But it's hard to promote a movie about a historical event your audience isn't already aware of.
I'm sure there's going to be a lot of "well, he shouldn't have shot that starter pistol", "well, why didn't they just tell them what happened?" instead of focusing on the systematic oppression that led to the entire incident in the first place.
Anyone who saw Jason Mitchell's Carl sobbing on that floor and said "well, he shouldn't have shot that starter pistol" is a psychopath and beyond hope. A movie can only reach people who already have a heart to reach, and the actors in this one really did the utmost to make the pain and horror that their characters were going through feel real. That's all anyone can do to get the viewers to focus on the right thing.
I see both sides of this argument; it's a story that needs to be told. However, if police brutality was all they wanted to show, then as someone mentioned, we can just go on YouTube. It was well done, terrifying, and triggering, but I wish it was more depth for the masses.
The way I see it, if you aren't already invested in the issue, you're not going to go searching on Youtube.
If you care about what movies are being buzzed about during awards season, however, you might see
Detroit despite not already having an interest.
And you just might have your eyes opened.
That's enough to give this movie worth, IMO.
