Racist Black Comedy:
Get Out
(2017)
“If I could have voted Obama in for a third term, I would have. Best President this country ever had.” Well, that’s one way to put your affluent white daughter’s black boyfriend at ease: patronise the hell out of him.
Then again, since it’s the second time we’ve heard this and Get Out has only been running for twenty minutes, then maybe it’s a sincere statement. Perhaps Daddy did think that a phony-charming snake oil salesman who dropped more bombs than Bush ever did and who spent much of his term hanging out with his celebrity pals really was the best.
And maybe he voted for BO because he wanted to show he wasn’t a racist and since Barack was black, then…but isn’t it racist to vote for someone just because they’re black and not white?
You can’t see my face, of course; so you don’t really know whether or not I’m being deadly serious, ironic or just yanking your chain. For all you know, I’m an African-American myself (although I’ll admit that with a name like Brady it’s not too likely); but you can tell a lot about what a person is really saying, just by looking at his face.
In the scene where Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) meets the parents of his girlfriend Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) for the first time, the camera keeps us at a distance; and from the dialogue it seems that all is going well. But who knows?
We can’t see the faces of the parents. It’s unnerving; and it puts us at a disadvantage.
And then the camera pulls back ever so slightly and we see the back of the black groundsman…but we can’t quite see his face, either.
It’s an eerie and telling moment, like several in writer-director Jordan Peele’s debut film; but I wish that he had stuck with that early tone because – and putting me in what seems to be a very tiny minority – I ended up really hating this damned film. Just hating it.
Remember that chillingly effective scene at the beginning of David Fincher’s masterful Zodiac? That moment where you realise that you will never ever be able to hear Donovan’s song ‘Hurdy Gurdy Man’ in the same way again?
Well, there is a similarly disturbing scene in the tense prologue to Get Out – and this time you can cross ‘Run Rabbit, Run’ off your list of Cheerful Ditty Requests.
Meet the Armitage Clan!
Dean and Missy Armitage (Bradley Whitford; Christine Keener) live on what amounts to a decent-sized estate and seem to be extremely welcoming to Chris, although Rose doesn’t see it that way (“He never says: ‘My man!’”) ; but then Rose seems to be one of those annoying student-types who sees racism everywhere. In fact, on the trip over she has acted like a completely spoiled brat, having a go at a cop who politely asked Chris to show him some I.D. In fact, she looked as if she was going to start screaming POLICE BRUTALITY and start hashtagging BlackLivesMatter at the poor bewildered-looking guy.
She should have saved her ire for Chris’s best friend, an unbelievable – and I do mean UNBELIEVABLE – creation who goes by the name of Rod Williams, a TSA officer with wild stories of white folks keeping black folks as sex slaves. He also makes a really crude comment about Rose, who accepts it uncomplainingly and even with a smile.
After all, Rod is black, so he can’t possibly be a racist.
This is early on in the movie and already I’m getting uncomfortable because I can’t equate Chris, the quiet, intelligent and talented photographer with the same guy who would have this loud, ignorant clown as his best pal.
Chris and Rose’s weekend with the Armitage family turns out be the anniversary of a general get-together that includes the whole weird clan. And here every cliché Peele can think of is purposefully trotted out – from the woman who feels up Chris’s muscles as if he was auditioning for a stage version of Mandingo to the guy who tells him enviously that black is now in fashion.
Meanwhile, Chris has been introduced to the maid (black) and the aforementioned groundskeeper (black) and even I was beginning to feel some Privileged White Guilt on behalf of the Armitages! So I guess that director Peele was pushing the right buttons – but does that make me the racist or him? Or – and here’s a thought – neither of us? Is it just good filmmaking which, after all, is going to manipulate you in one direction or another in any case?
Get Out is a reasonably interesting film that begins to go off the rails half-way in when the Stepford Wives references get just a bit too much; and by the time we’ve reached the last twenty minutes the movie is as out of control as a REALLY out-there episode of Dr. Who.
Just why this is being hailed as a Modern Classic and A Very Important Film is utterly beyond me. It’s neither. It’s a hybrid that starts out as a neat little horror movie before getting ideas that it’s a social commentary. Then it backs itself into a corner that is completely over-the-top ridiculous, even in a satire as annoyingly preachy and consciously self- worthy as this one.
And I’m not even sure what it’s a satire OF. Is it just saying that liberal racism is even worse than the redneck variety because it’s unaware of itself? If that’s it, I have to confess to being a bit sick and tired of this ‘racism’ crap being pulled non-stop. Hell, after the OscarsSoWhite bullshit of 2016 any black nominee who got an award this year can NEVER be sure it was because of talent. Where the hell is the sense in that?
Jeez, I even wondered if I had ulterior motives in using the *gasp* ‘black comedy’ headline.
Peele obviously knows how to make a film — there is a genuinely creepy scene where we think that we are watching a group of harmless old white people playing bingo…until the penny drops – but to my mind he has tried to fit too much in, squashing up straight horror with satire and of course comedy. And please could we be a bit more sparing with the frigging jump shocks? They’re fine in their place but…when someone walks past in the background. Come on.
I’ve a feeling that critics have approached this with kid gloves because they’re afraid of that famous Race Card being pulled out. And they’ve got a point. When you get right down to it Get Out really is a racist film.
It’s racist against white people. That kind of complicates things, doesn’t it?
March 27, 2017
I actually liked it; the issue is that liberal racism, while not as bad as conservative racism, it’s still condescending. The armitage clan does what they do out of a condescending belief that blacks are genetically better in certain areas….which is still kinda condescending. Peele himself said he got the idea because people were saying racism was over with Obama even though it wasn’t. We’ve come a long way but racism can still be an issue. Martin Luther King himself said that one of the biggest roadblocks isn’t the reactionary racist but those who want to be allies to the civil rights movement but don’t really want to rock the boat. The art dealer is commentary on those who ignore the poison of racism by saying “oh I don’t see race.”
Also Rose had ulterior motives with the white cop since she’s involved in the scheme. If Chris showed him his id there would be a paper trail of sorts. Hell tvtropes raised the possibility the cop was looking into the abductions of black men.
March 28, 2017
I was aware that I would be in a minority with my feelings on this film. And to be honest, you’ve listed a few points that sailed right over my head. Yet I still have this ‘so what’ feeling about the movie. I wish it had been played as a straight horror film, although — and SPOILER AHEAD — that whole brain transplant stuff had me thinking of ‘Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein’; and then it was over for me — especially since that one is a much better film, heh!
And the friend who worked for Homeland security — Jesus, how is it at ALL possible to justify that idiot.
Even as a satire I found it toothless and kept wondering how much outrage you would have gotten if you had reversed the races – that might have been interesting. Or maybe not. But when it comes to satires the VERY BEST I’ve seen in years is Bobcat Goldthwaite’s ‘God Bless America’. To me that is utterly fearless in a way that ‘Get Out’ simply isn’t. Goldthwaite (hope I’m spelling that name right) NEVER plays it safe and goes for the jugular every time, on everything from people who high five each other (a personal hate) to rude bastards who talk in cinemas (the mass shooting is so close to the bone you just sit there stunned) to dicks like Simon Cowell. It is just NEVER safe.
Also, there’s a really good movie called ‘Lenny’ with Dustin Hoffman as the 60s comedian and junkie Lenny Bruce. At one point he addresses a black member of the audience as a ‘jigaboo’, ‘nigger’ ‘coon’ – you name it – until just at the point when he is about to get his lights punched out, the black man realises that Bruce is reducing these moronic terms to a point where they have become meaningless. Now THAT I got — ‘Get Out’ I didn’t.
March 31, 2017
Also rod is airport security. That’s why he’s not treated seriously
April 1, 2017
Ha! You’re a brave man, Ryan: as someone who ivariably gets pulled over by them, I NEVER make fun of airport security…at least until I’m safely on the other side.
April 3, 2017
Hey I’ve been frisked a few times. They’re generally not liked by other law enforcement
Also here’s a parody script
April 3, 2017
http://www.the-editing-room.com/get-out.html
It’s funny
April 4, 2017
I didn’t know that they weren’t popular with regular cops. Interesting. And thanks for the link, Ryan. I’ll look forward to watching that later.
April 24, 2017
Have you read it? It actually pokes a lot of fun at it?
April 25, 2017
What did I just watch?, as you know Charley I never read the critics before I’ve watched the movie myself so I went into this movie totally blind as to the social commentary within, by the time I was finished Charley I thought Buzzfeed had become involved in the movie making industry?, movies like these full of percieved and imagined racism only add fuel to the fire ie alienating the already paranoid black community even more than they already are, of course we got lashings of so called white people stereotypes of black people, Ryan is only half right as regards the cop asking for id but you can be sure the Black Lives Matter idiots loved the subtle reference?.
We even got Jesse Owens, and Tiger Woods ffs, oh and of course Obama had to get a token mention too, and I presume that the Black housemaid was a reference to Uncle Tom?.
They say this was supposed to be a satirical “Black” comedy, where was the comedy I never laughed once?, yes there was a few good scenes but mostly just parodies of older horror movies, I’ll give the director the benefit of the doubt as he did show some potential but hey man he really does need to lighten up and that goes for the wider American black community and their far left regressive apologists!.
April 25, 2017
Oh and I almost forgot, goes to show you what type of scociety we are dealing with today, this movie has litrally blown the box office takings into the stratosphere, a mere 5 million budget closing in fast on 200 million, no doubt the snowflakes simply adored it and I presume every movie theatre in mainly black communties would have been bursting at the seams?.
And don’t you think there is a small bit of maneuver for a ‘Get Out 2’ was the daughter really dead or did she just pass out?, with such rich pickings to be had who knows?.
April 25, 2017
It’s a damn sight funnier AND more satirical than the film: wish they had shot the spoof instead. I might have liked that.
April 25, 2017
Yeah…well, I’ll be giving the probably unavoidable sequel a miss. Take a look at the parody script that Ryan sent.
April 27, 2017
Will do Cha, as regards the sequel if there is one I would watch it just to see what other anti white symbolisms and stereotypes the director can come up with, it won’t be easy because this movie was literally crammed full of past and perceived present day racism, the Bingo game was of course a silent auction, and yes we had to get the white man can’t jump reference, the father didn’t want to say basketball when asking what sports he played, so he mentioned other sports but knew that Basketball was almost certain to be the answer.
The black community in America would be far better off trying to sort the endless problems they themselves created instead of blaming the bad bad whiteman for all their social ills!, yes of course racism still exists but its hard not to come to the conclusion that Black people are far more racist than any other race in America, comes from constantly playing the victim card when nine times out of ten you’re not the victim at all but the victim of you’re own stupidity!.
April 27, 2017
Hey Cha any chance you can add an edit facility to correct spelling errors?.
April 28, 2017
Will do, Patrick…just as soon as I figure out how to get back into my own site after the new blocks! I’m not the brightest when it comes to technology at the best of times and at the moment feel like doing a Bradbury on it and screaming that ‘there are too many internets out there!’
By the way, your hatred for ‘Get Out’ is…impressive!
May 8, 2017
That’s not fair. A lot of black people DO work hard and get screwed. The ugly truth is that institutional racism is alive and well and many blacks are blocked from being able to advance (whites with criminal records have as much chance of
May 8, 2017
Except that as I said white people with criminal records have as much shot at a job as black people with no records. Blacks who commit the same crime as whites get harsher prison sentences.
The black community has problems but only a racist would deny that white people DO play a role in the situation
May 8, 2017
I think that I’ll make this my last comment on racism: it’s defined as being bigotry towards one particular race based on the belief that another particular race is superior. One glance at my political stuff over a period of decades will show that I have my knife in rotten, corrupt politicians. The ones I write about just happen to be white and I doubt that they’re even superior to flu germs.
It’s way past time I got my ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2’ review up. Hell, there were white, black, yellow, green, blue and talking animals in that and I didn’t have a problem with any of them. (Especially the lovely Mantis.) Should be on safe ground.
Incidentally, Ryan, I’m just reading the comics collection ‘Providence’ at the moment. Now THAT deals in part with ‘racism’ in a very different way! It’s very much recommended.
July 24, 2017
Sorry Ryan only after seeing your reply now, yeah I’ve no doubt that racism exists in America and other places, but is it really as prevalent as what the likes of buzzfeed percieve?.
Can black people be racist against white people?.
Such has been this world for centuries it was all about conquest, black, white, arab, slant eyes tried there hand at it, even amerindians were slaughtering each other well before the bad bad whiteman arrived.
Slavery left a legacy, as such poor blacks migrated to many of America’s cities to escape the institutionalised racism of the south, but unfortunately that led to ghettoes, of course poverty led to crime, but its not only black people that live in poverty but crime has become almost par for the course within mainly black communities, black gangs against black gangs, not a whiteman in sight, yet if a white policeman shoots one of these black criminals its only because he was black which is absolute bullshit, more whites are shot by police every year in American but shoot a black man its racist not because he had a criminal record as long as an anaconda and probably carrying a piece but because the poor guy was black?.
August 31, 2017
Except that black on black crime has declined (at most 5% of all blacks are criminals if that). And there are cases like Philando Castile and Walter Scott where the cops got away with murder. So BLM DOES actually have a point.
Hell google Jon Burge (let’s just say he’s one of the reasons illinois abolished the death penalty and turned against it) and all the monstrous shit HE got up too (Chicago is still paying off the people he tortured). The problem is that A LOT of police tend to justify Burge’s crimes (in one case, Burge KNOWINGLY let an arsonist who murdered 7 people get away with it because his men had manufactured a confession for another man and didn’t want to admit what they’d done). They ignore that Burge got a lot of innocent people thrown in jail on the ground that “they’re just ****ers”
Hell in charlottsville a kkk member pulled a gun on another person……and the cop just stood by and watched