What is the meaning of turning a historical fact into a film by thoroughly reproducing "Detroit"?

In the same summer as the riots, there was a Supreme Court decision that drastically changed the history of racial discrimination!

There is a movie I would like to recommend to get a feel for the 1967 era that ``Detroit'' depicts. Loving was directed by Jeff Nichols in 2016 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

The film is based on the true story of Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Loving, a black woman whose marriage was found to be illegal under Virginia law and was convicted. Richard and Mildred are childhood friends and become engaged when Mildred becomes pregnant. However, in the state of Virginia where they were born and raised, interracial marriages are not recognized, so they registered their marriage in Washington, D.C., but when they returned to their hometown, they were arrested.

The movie depicts the turmoil in which the Lovings, who just wanted to live a quiet and peaceful life, become parties to a lawsuit related to racial discrimination, and the decision is taken up to the Supreme Court. The couple married and were sentenced in 1958. In 1963, he complained to then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy that the ruling was unconstitutional. Finally, in June 1967, the Supreme Court acquitted him. It took almost 10 years for this couple, who were just ordinary people other than the fact that they were of different races, to be recognized as husband and wife.

“Detroit” © 2017 SHEPARD DOG, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

The riots depicted in the movie ``Detroit'' occur the month after this verdict. It is unclear whether this trial, which marked a major advance in American human rights consciousness, was the cause of the "Long Hot Summer" series of riots. However, there is no doubt that 1967 was an important year in the issue of racial discrimination, which remained unresolved even more than 100 years after Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (September 1962). Interracial marriage was recognized for the first time in Virginia, and innocent black people were murdered by police in Detroit without resistance. Although the results may have been exactly the opposite, both incidents were turning points in the midst of an era of social innovation.

Text: Akira Murayama

Born in 1971. Writes articles for magazines, newspapers, movie sites, etc. Representative of “ShortCuts,” a review site for distribution-based works.

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© 2017 SHEPARD DOG, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Friday, January 26, 2018, TOHO Cinemas Chante and other nationwide releases

*Information as of February 2018 article publication.