An average movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it’s only afterwards that I discovered that this movie had received some very poor reviews but, to be honest, I don’t think it was bad at all. Indeed, in my opinion, it gave a grim but compelling depiction of the everyday life in the black ghettos in Los Angeles. During the process around the beating of Rodney King, the situation in these urban areas became even more unstable and unsafe and, following the verdict, they even had some riots for days. Well, in my opinion, this movie gave a good idea on how bleak it was for all the people living there at the time and it is rather disheartening that, 30 years later, their situation has hardly improved. Still, even if the material was quite strong, I’ll have to admit that this movie did falter on various occasions and, eventually, the biggest issue was with Daniel Craig’s character. First of all, the decision to add such a white character in this tale was rather dubious at best and, to make it worse, what they did with the guy was really cringe-inducing. Indeed, at first, he seemed to be a hysterical probably racist white dude but, then, he turned out to be gentle and helpful because, apparently, that’s what Millie Dunbar, a strong resourceful black woman, needed at the time, a white man to save her ass. However, it all got so much worse when they both got cuffed around some lantern pole. Seriously, this scene didn’t make any sense whatsoever on any level possible. The best thing I can come up with was that the makers thought it would be a great idea to show that, even during the biggest tragedies, you can still have some fun (even romantic?) adventure while a whole neighborhood was looting and shooting  which probably sound as appalling as it was to see on the screen. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws and even though this movie has a rather poor reputation, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.