The whole world, the United States at the head, rebels and protests to shout its anger against the death of George Floyd, killed on May 25 during his arrest in Minneapolis. Since the 1960s, American filmmakers have appealed to spectators and called, through strong films, to fight against racism. Here are five easily visible on streaming or VoD platforms.
"Guess who's coming to dinner", by Stanley Kramer (1967)
A young woman decides to introduce her lover, a doctor, to her parents. Until then, nothing but very banal, except that we are in the mid-1960s in the United States, that the girl is white, and that her fiancé is black. Because even if the parents of the bride are liberal and say they are anti-racist, the shock will prove to be terrible for them ... Received as a slap when it came out in an America where some states still prohibited interracial marriages, "Guess who comes to dinner Was then part of the great lesson in tolerance, all in finesse. The film was based on a five-star cast: Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier… But only the first Hepburn won an Oscar at the 40th ceremony that followed.
"Guess who's coming to dinner" , by Stanley Kramer (1967), with Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier… Visible in VoD (from 2.99 euros) on most platforms.
"Mississipi Burning", by Alan Parker (1988)
In 1964, in Mississippi, three young civil rights activists disappear in strange conditions. The FBI dispatches two agents to the scene: Ward, an enthusiastic novice applying the government's agency's new speedy methods, and Anderson, an old truck driver born in the South, more poised. While they are investigating, the situation becomes explosive on the spot: the Ku Klux Klan multiplies the violent outbursts…
Inspired by a real fact, "Mississippi Burning" has the intelligence to permanently anchor its story in the form of a thriller in the troubled political, social and racial context of an America then on the brink of civil war. Gene Hackman turns out to be imperial in the role of this apparently clever agent and diplomat, but who is inwardly angry at injustices. A great movie.
“Mississippi Burning” , by Alan Parker (1988), with Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand… Visible on VoD.
"Do the Right Thing", by Spike Lee (1989)
During a hot summer evening in New York, a discussion that went awry between the owner of a pizzeria and young blacks in the neighborhood led the police to intervene: in the heat of the action, one of the youth is killed by a white policeman. In the aftermath, his friends attacked the pizzeria team and set fire to the place ... With this chronicle - we can no longer be topical - racial tensions that can degenerate between communities, Spike Lee, never the the last to denounce racism, then provoked a controversy when it came out, some accusing him of pushing black youth into revolt and riots. However, the film, wonderfully staged and embodied, dissects as closely as possible everything that can bring together or lead to the division of people who are neither good nor bad.
“Do the Right Thing” , by and with Spike Lee (1989), and with Danny Aiello, John Turturro… Visible on VoD.
“Django Unchained”, by Quentin Tarantino (2012)
In 1858, in the southern United States, a white bounty hunter promises freedom to a black slave if he helps him capture criminals, while the second seeks to find his wife from whom he has been separated. Their alliance will take an unexpected turn and end in a liberating butchery… Always ready to denounce racism in his films, Quentin Tarantino delivers with this western on slavery a furious political pamphlet doubled by a colorful action film , where great actors deliver the best of themselves.
“Django Unchained” Quentin Tarantino (2012), with Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson… Visible on Netflix.
“Selma”, by Ava DuVernay (2014)
Adapted from real facts, "Selma" tells how, in 1965, the pastor Martin Luther King undertook a long pacifist march in Alabama. But under pressure from President Johnson, then in power, the police force will violently attack the demonstrators in the city of Selma. Finely directed by Ava DuVernay - to whom we will later owe, on the same theme, the formidable mini-series of Netflix "In their Look", this great film on the fight for their rights of African-Americans caused there a few days into a controversy: the director and the actor David Oyelowo, who plays Marthin Luther King, accused the Academy of Oscars of having boycotted the film in 2015, because the team wore t-shirts mentioning "I can 't breathe' in tribute to Eric Garner, a black man killed under the same conditions as George Floyd.
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“Selma” , by Ava DuVernay (2014), with David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson… Visible on VoD.
