it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

I was hoping for more. The movie was long, but I felt like the emphasis was on the wrong things. Motive was glossed over. Torture scenes were drawn out. Why were the cops so evil and the detectives "enlightened"? Having lived through those times and knowing public servants from that era, I think they way things were portrayed was not true to form. The acting was strong and the content was emotional, but here in Detroit this case is still hotly debated and I am not sure the filmmaker captured how it is seen here.

I was a child during the hell on earth Detroit summer of 1967. I don't remember it. Acclaimed Director Kathryn Bigelow has done one helluva job recreating the powder keg that exploded over a half century ago in the based-on-actual-events drama "Detroit". It is profoundly difficult to process that a human being could be as recklessly racist as these rogue cops are. Will Poulter is particularly chilling as the brazen ring leader. That these white officers of the law could treat mostly black suspects as lives that scarcely matter is sickening. Yet, as the disturbing courtroom scenes reveal toward the end of the film, how do we know?

As a whole, 'Detroit (2017)' is too unfocused and too big for what it is trying to achieve, with the first act standing almost entirely alone from the following two and feeling sort of superfluous in the overall narrative. The central set-piece - and even, to a lesser extent, its much slower aftermath - is compelling, vigorous stuff that's unrelenting in its tension and urgency, though. It never just feels like one race against another, but rather humans placed in a situation where good and evil are shown in shades of grey. If you're even remotely human, the brutality and oppression of the piece will make your blood boil and the flick pulls no punches when it comes to the injustice on display. The lack of any comeuppance almost feels like a lack of narrative closure - you truly want to see the perpetrators punished, and this alone is an achievement - but instead it simply emulates the messy and unfulfilling way that life often works. While the story mightn't be entirely accurate to the real-life scenario (the events of which were never accurately established in court), it does work as an examination of what could have happened in a terrible situation that took the lives of three young men, one which is still scarily relevant today. 7/10

As much evil as any horror film. The only difference is that these are "normal" humans. That's what makes it so horrific. Not a film I'd ever watch again, but I'm glad I did.