Escaping the Sunken Place: Why ‘Get Out’ was 2017′s Best Picture
“Sex Slaves!”
I tend to like the annual Academy Awards nominated movies, sometimes even love. I am guilty of singing the praises of notable Oscars’ favourites like Moonlight, La La Land, Spotlight, The Big Short, to name a few. However, very rarely does a movie which I absolutely loved on initial release (before the awards’ hype surrounds it), have as real a shot in the awards conversation as Get Out does. Now, a lot of people loved Get Out, so my love for it isn’t a niche thing, it doesn’t qualify me as an “arty, film buff” (that’s reserved for my love of Boyhood and Lady Bird). Get Out was my best film of the year (closely followed by Dunkirk and Baby Driver) and I believe it should win Best Picture come March 4th.
There are certain types movies that get nominated and win Academy Awards. You can usually spot them from a mile away. From their first trailer, you know they are engineered to win awards. Sure, there are the few exceptions every year, but most of the time, the “Oscar movies” are of a similar mould.
These movies are usually released by the studios during what is referred to as the “Oscar season” which ranges from late October to the end of the year. This ensures that the movies remain in the voters’ consciousness when voting for nominees (early January) and voting for eventual winners (mid-late February) commences. It is a tried and test formula. Out of the 43 Best Picture nominees, from the past five years, only 6 have been released before the end of August: The Grand Budapest Hotel (March), Boyhood (July), Mad Max: Fury Road (May), Hell or High Water (August), Dunkirk (July) and Get Out (February).
This is an incredible achievement for Get Out and a true reflection of the times as it has managed to remain a mainstay in society’s general consciousness over a year from its release (the Sunken Place jokes are still rolling in). What is even more surprising, and pleasing, is that it was able to stay in the typically short-minded consciousness of Academy Voters ten months after its release, especially considering it is not one of those “typical” Oscar movies and doesn’t boast any real A-list star. Very few films manage to do this and Get Out’s almost unintentional ability to do it is one of the many reasons why it deserves to go home with the big prize.
While Box office returns are not a good indicator of who would/should win awards, it is important to note that out of this year’s nominees, only Dunkirk ($525.6 million) has outperformed Get Out’s $255 million and no other film was as profitable- Get Out was made on a budget of just $4.5 million while Dunkirk is a $100 million blockbuster. All these stem from my main point — it is a fucking fantastic film that is actually saying something.
Over the past year, the merits of Get Out have been written by several people, many of whom have expressed these positives more eloquently than I ever could but, please, bear with me. Ryan Coogler described Black Panther as serving medicine in ice-cream and I can’t think of any other instance where that is more applicable than with Get Out. A biting social thriller disguised as a run of the mill horror movie. I will admit that I am not a fan of horror movies and as a result, I avoided watching Get Out for a few weeks until it was evident that I wasn’t just missing out on a movie but a real watershed moment, a culture shift.
The timeliness of its release definitely paid a huge part in the movie’s success. Jordan Peele has said that he began writing the film in what he describes as “the post-racial lie”-The Obama Administration. The period in which white, liberal America was so sure that America had gone past racism, racism was over. He would finish writing and shooting the film towards the end of the administration and as luck(?) would have it, the movie would premiere a month or so after 45’s inauguration. By which point, the “post-racial” farce was beginning to unravel.
One thing did change as a reaction to the new administration- the ending. While the original ending, which saw Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) being arrested after the massacre at the Armitage’s house, was great, early test screenings showed that it bummed people out and in the light of the new administration it was decided that “we (black people) needed to catch a break”. That is not to say that the new and current ending is not great in its own right, it is. The collective gasp in my theatre when the cop lights appear and the sighs of relief and cheer when Rod’s (Lil Rel Howery) face is shown might be my favourite moment in a theatre in 2017.
Jordan Peele’s screenplay (which I hope he wins an award for, on Sunday) is incredible. It is brilliant in its simplicity and relatability. It is relatable to the black person who has been the butt of these microaggressions and for the white liberal who has said those things as a way to show that they were not racist. Any black person who has spent an uncomfortable amount of time around white people knows that feeling, when you are immediately asked “what sport do you play?” or if you are unfortunately big/tall and are constantly told how much of a “beast” you would be if you went to the gym regularly. If you are African then you are constantly asked about your opinions about whatever crisis in whatever African country. They have this uncanny insistence to talk about race to show that they don’t care about race.
In Chris and Rose’s (Allison Williams) introductory scene, he asks her if his parents know that he is black. She replies that it doesn’t matter, her parents “are not racist”. The black people in the audience know better, it does matter. The white liberals, however, would agree with Rose that it does not matter. It should not matter. They don’t see colour. I argue that Jordan is calling bullshit on that. You should see colour.
During the first two-thirds of the movie, Rose’s dad, Dean Armitage (Bradley Whitford) makes statements about how incredible it is to experience other people’s cultures or that he “would have voted for Obama a third time. Best President in my generation, hands down”. These are statements black people are used to hearing, it is the other person’s way of endearing themselves, it is meant to show how liberal they are. They “get it”. We are so used to hearing these statements that we instantly shrug them off, they have good intentions.
It all comes to a head in the final act of the film when the Armitages are revealed to be the villains. It is deeply unsettling for a good majority of white audiences because, at this point, they have agreed with most of the statements Dean has made. They are statements they have made to their black friends or co-workers. These middle-class liberals whom they had identified with were actually the villains? What does that say about them?
It is telling that Jordan’s script only uses the N-word twice and they are both spoken by Rod. These are not your typical racists. Sure, we know about the not gun-toting, confederate flag-waving racists, but what about the racism that exists in the sphere of liberal, white elitism?
Get Out operates and succeeds on so many levels. It is wish-fulfillment for Black people- the Black horror fans who constantly scream at the dumb decisions made by the leads in horror films and the non-horror watching Black person, who finally gets to see his/her everyday experience told on screen- it also works as a wake-up call to those who, during the course of the film, found themselves guilty of committing the various microaggressions portrayed in the film. They were wrong and needed to change. Finally, it served as a very effective attack on society and its relationship with black people. Society’s tendency to fetishise and exploit the black body while disregarding and belittling the black life.
Currently, the Oscar for Best Picture seems to be heading to either The Shape of Water or Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri. If I was a betting man, I would probably guess that the controversy surrounding Three Billboards might drag it down and The Shape of Water would come out as the eventual winner. However, nothing would make me happier than a surprise win for what I firmly believe to be the Best Film of the year.
Bankole Imoukhuede
@banky_I
Originally published at popcornfordinner.me on 1/03/2018
