{"id":31266,"date":"2017-07-11T06:00:37","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T11:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=31266"},"modified":"2017-07-10T17:26:57","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T22:26:57","slug":"get-out-a-film-deserving-of-the-hype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/get-out-a-film-deserving-of-the-hype\/","title":{"rendered":"Get Out: A Film Deserving of the Hype"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Horror cinema is an ideal format for illuminating and discussing mass anxiety.\u00a0Zombie film comes to mind as one representation of “fear-of-the-crowd”, i.e. the fear of\u00a0being\u00a0engulfed or overtaken.\u00a0In 1976, George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>was shot in a shopping mall replete with lumbering zombies whose sole purpose was to consume. In the 2004 remake, the zombies returned to the shopping malls in which they spent their human lives; but they were super-charged and stronger than ever. 21st-century zombies lack personal agency, wit, and intellect like their slower-moving predecessors; but you can be sure they own and can operate their cell phones.<\/p>\n

Get Out ,<\/strong><\/em><\/a> a break-out film written and directed by Jordan Peele has been classified as horror, thriller, and comedy and I’d say it’s a type <\/em>of zombie film. (You may remember Key & Peele<\/a>–a sketch comedy television series featuring Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key).\u00a0 Peele’s film has been a sensation: Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 99%!\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>Although you won’t find prototypical, grey-faced zombies mindlessly lumbering through a mall, the main protagonist must fight for his life….and his brains. <\/em>If we look at Get Out in terms of how it fits into\u00a0or critiques the culture and society that produces it, what current social or cultural issues might be present? (The inimitable Nina Simone sums it up well: \u201cYou can’t help it. An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times<\/a>.”) What cultural or social issues does Get Out<\/em> bring to the forefront or interrogate?<\/p>\n

Cinema\u00a0that enables viewers to experience life from the perspective of another is powerful. As a white woman, I watched\u00a0Get Out<\/strong> <\/em><\/a>\u00a0from the point-of-view of a young black male. In watching from this perspective, I stepped into the shoes of Chris, the lead character.\u00a0You will\u00a0certainly sympathize with Chris (played by Daniel Kaluuya), as\u00a0he begins to unravel how his white girlfriend’s family (The Armitage family)\u00a0and their affiliates are entangled in\u00a0a twisted and evil operation. Get Out\u00a0 <\/em> <\/a><\/strong>presents an ominous view of human nature and confronts issues of overt and subtle racism.\u00a0\u00a0Despite some much-needed moments of comic relief\u00a0(after all, comedy is often a medium for acknowledging &\u00a0coping with\u00a0the\u00a0absurdities and injustices of life), the\u00a0tone of the film is decidedly morose.\u00a0\u00a0Early on, viewers watch as a young black man is kidnapped–a foreshadowing of chilling and disturbing events to ensue. Horror cinema–unlike Rom Coms or even Drama (in my opinion) most effectively acknowledges and critiques society and culture. Horror effectively conveys and validates terror in a way that no other film genre has been able to do.<\/p>\n

In a similar vein as Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, <\/em>a supplanting operation of the creepiest kind is underway in Get Out\u00a0 <\/em><\/a><\/strong>when Chris notices how strangely his black contemporaries are behaving. The speed of the film coupled with the unmistakable feeling\u00a0 <\/em>that something horrifying looms in the not-so-distant future contributes to the paralyzing anxiety experienced by Chris as he meets his white girlfriend’s parents for the first time. I was not surprised to learn that Peele was heavily influenced by Stanley Kurbrick as Get Out<\/em><\/a> <\/strong>presents several bizarre and anxiety-producing scenes in which you’re not exactly sure what’s going on, but your gut tells you to get out! Subtlety itself takes on a very important role and purpose in this film: sometimes the most terrible realities are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Subtle terror creeps in undetected (but not unfelt, necessarily) until it’s too late. Like Chris, viewers begin to feel a bit crazy as self-doubt sets in. After all, the Armitage family initially appears <\/em>relatively harmless; but their ignorance is also immediately palpable.<\/p>\n

Get Out\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/a>effectively uses cinematography, scoring, acting, and directing to produce an undeniably\u00a0paranoid & distrustful atmosphere. You see and feel what Chris feels. Every detail in this film was carefully considered — even down to the opening song, Redbone<\/em><\/a>, by Childish Gambino<\/a>: \u201cWell, first of all, I love the \u2018Stay Woke\u2019 [lyric] \u2014 that\u2019s what this movie is about,\u201d he (Peele)\u00a0explains to HipHopDX Editor-in-Chief, Trent Clark. \u201cI wanted to make sure that this movie satisfied the black horror movie audience\u2019s need for characters to be smart and do things that intelligent and observant people would do.<\/p>\n

This film is not just a run-of-the-mill horror flick designed to give you a thrill: it sticks with you. We don’t do a good job of collectively discussing issues racism in this country, but this film prompts another discussion. The Director stated poignantly in an interview: <\/a>” ‘Part of being black in this country, or being a minority in this country, is about feeling like we\u2019re perceiving things that we\u2019re told we\u2019re not<\/em> perceiving,\u201d said Peele. \u201cIt\u2019s a state of mind. It\u2019s a piece of the condition of being African American, certainly, that people may not know. They may not realize the toll that it does take \u2014 even if the toll is making us doubt ourselves.'”<\/p>\n

When \u00a0your fellow human beings experience something on a mass scale, listen to them. Listening–not denying & not being silent–is revolutionary.<\/p>\n

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Horror cinema is an ideal format for illuminating and discussing mass anxiety.\u00a0Zombie film comes to mind as one representation of “fear-of-the-crowd”, i.e. the fear of\u00a0being\u00a0engulfed or overtaken.\u00a0In 1976, George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead\u00a0was shot in a shopping mall replete with lumbering zombies whose sole purpose was to consume. In[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[3254,863,85],"class_list":["post-31266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvds","tag-dvds","tag-horror","tag-movies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-88i","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31266"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31310,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31266\/revisions\/31310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}