Movie review
July 28, 2017 · 143 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Detroit is a 2017 historical crime drama directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal. It focuses on the Algiers Motel incident during the 1967 Detroit riots, showing a police raid that resulted in the deaths of three Black men and the severe abuse of other civilians by officers. The film uses an intense, immersive style to show the violence and the lack of accountability afterward. Racial conflict and police misconduct drive the central events and structure of the story.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Detroit.
Woke representation / casting
Casting places Black actors in prominent central roles as victims and a security guard during a specific 1967 historical incident. The racial composition directly follows documented real events and participants rather than appearing as audience-visible identity signaling, quotas, or mismatches with the story world.
Woke political dialogue
Police characters use period-appropriate racist language, slurs, and threats that fit the brutal incident being shown. No modern activist speeches, DEI language, or anachronistic political lectures appear in the script or delivery.
Identity-driven story themes
The premise, character experiences, and structure center racial conflict, with Black civilians facing targeted police abuse and impunity as the core tragedy. Race functions as the explicit driver of the violence and injustice in the narrative.
Western institutional / cultural critique
The film shows the Detroit Police Department and National Guard enabling or failing to stop rogue officers, with clear depictions of racism, cover-ups, and zero accountability. It presents law enforcement institutions as failing Black citizens in this event and has been widely read as carrying parallels to later times.
Production
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. This is a historical dramatization of real 1967 people and events; any composites or dramatic choices follow ordinary biopic practices and are not identity or DEI-driven reinterpretations of established figures.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Some conservative commentary and social media users described it as race propaganda or anti-police messaging and noted its commercial failure. Evidence remains limited and mixed rather than a major organized backlash; most prominent criticism came from the left on creative perspective instead.
Creator track record context
Writer Mark Boal has a low activist profile focused on narrative-driven military stories. Director Kathryn Bigelow's body of work emphasizes realistic conflict with limited public identity-politics involvement. Casting directors show mixed records on diversity emphasis (cached 47/100 and 22/100). Producers carry low cached scores with mainstream credits and no dominant activist patterns.
