In this film, there're three camps the ruling class, the working class, and the members of the w/c that are aware of their position in society. The movie presents the ruling class as having no empathy, along with a distorted worldview. I think what Boots Riley is trying to say with all of this is that the unity of everyone who's oppressed is the way towards a more balanced society. This may have not even been intentional but I like to think that's to show how people are often so caught up in their own little worlds that they don't see the surrounding inequalities. This is such a tedious detail but at two different points during the movie, the camera will just rest on real-world events about racism, being presented on the news, before the camera pans and the sound of tragedy becomes washed out by music and people talking about something completely different. This inequality is what initially causes Stanfield and Yeun to bond, which I think links to how some Marxist believe the working class feel alienated and, thereby, become united through a shared experience.ĭespite this, the mini-revolution doesn't affect Hammer himself as the general population is still at the hand of the ideological apparatuses created through the media. This shows how important the usage of an ideological apparatus is for the ruling class. It's only here when everyone begins a revolution against their (lower up managers). Hammer and the other managers own them take the money and nice stuff, whilst Stanfield and Yeun (among others) sell their labour in exchange for low wages. In the lower levels of the call centre where Stanfield initially works, out of the, let's say, 200 people, only two of them (Stanfield and Yeun) catch onto the unfair nature of where they work. I feel as if I'm getting so heady and pretentious about this but I love doing this kind of stuff, so I shall continue. I think that drives home how in dark and unaware the working class often are of these sorts of manoeuvres. This meeting takes place in Hammers private quarters, away from everyone, even his rich buddies. Hammer wants to give the horse people a false sense of comfort (or a "false consciousness") through the use of an ideological apparatus (a false prophet that brings hope basically), so he can continue to get rich and withhold his position as part of the ruling class. When, Hammer's character pitches to Stanfield's about becoming the (manufactured) "Martin Luther King Jr" of the horse people, I think this shows how the ruling class are driven by profit, and therefore, power over the working class through exploitation. The ruling class owning all the means of production, with the working class being forced to, thereby, sell their labour for a fraction of what the ruling class have. This movie to me is what Marxism is all about. This sort of conflict between the vibrancy of Stanfield's w/c life and the almost bleak colours of the wealth represents the entire theme of this movie. The conspiracy, in essence, is that this rich Steve Job type (Armie Hammer) currently sells people as slaves through his business and is planning on cross-breeding members of the working class with horses, so they become more obedient slaves/workers. Once he does, he rapidly gets swept up into a conspiracy, and must choose between making money at the expense of humanity and joining with his activist friends (Tessa Thompson + Steven Yeun) to organize labour. If you don't know, here's the story the film follows a young African-American telemarketer (Lakeith Stanfield) who adopts a white accent in order to thrive at his job. This clinical nature contrasts to the warmth of his old life, now that he's lost his friends and the ability to fight for the things he believes in. As weird as this sounds, I think his (black) skin tone makes him stand out even more against the pure white of this world of wealth. But when he's in the call centre and his home after becoming rich, it's clinical and white. His world when he's part of the working class is filled with the warmth of the surrounding people. I really like how when he's just in Oakland with his mates and girlfriend it's vibrant, using every colour imaginable. this is one of the best movies of 2018! I love everything about it the cast was fantastic, the writing was great, but I wanna talk about the cinematography and mise en scene (the other part of my brain is yelling at me for how pretentious that sounds).
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