Yes, y'all, love is truly in the details for this one.Īt the end of the film while hand-in-hand with Slim, Queen is instantly killed with one sudden shot-at the hands of a white, female cop. "But then it was some sort of combination of me and Melina, like, 'Oh, let’s call him Langston.' I have a Langston Hughes quote on my arm that says 'I, too, am America.' And also my nephew-I named my nephew for him." He was just 'Black cop,'" Waithe tells us. And as it turns out, it was another hidden gem dedicated to a certain classic poet. The name of the cop that lets them escape.ĭuring both of the screenings I attended, the audience erupted into applause when a cop let Queen and Slim go after discovering their attempt to flee the Georgia home of Uncle Earl's friends.ĭuring this moment of joy, I couldn't help but notice the Black policeman in question's name tag. "Once you put on that uniform.you're responsible-even as a Black man-for the sins of your colleagues." "We also wanted to speak to law enforcement, and as an institution, the racism within it," Matsoukas said at The Weeksville Heritage Center. (We later learn she doesn't believe in God.) The license plate on his Accord reads "TrustGod," and there's a cross present in nearly every frame of the movie, from one on Queen's Uncle Earl's turquoise wall to a rosary hanging from the rearview mirror in one of the couple's many getaway cars. Slim dutifully prays before he eats while Queen impatiently looks on. The constant presence of religion and crosses.įrom the first scene, it's clear that Christianity is ingrained in the DNA of this film. "And we don't get to know who these people actually are until they're no longer with us." "We also wanted to speak to how Black bodies and Black lives are often more honored in death than in life," the director says. "We wanted to build upon the legacy on which our heroes had built-and the fight in which they had struggled through and won."Īnd there was yet another message underneath that easter egg-particularly when it came to why it took so long for us to hear their names. "Queen’s actual name is Angela, for Angela Davis," Matsoukas tells. The bar where Queen and Slim have their second date. I was like, 'It’s Slim’s car-that’s him.'” "In a half hour, six people were pulled over, and I remember a white Accord being pulled over by Cleveland police. "Slim has the white Accord because I was on that same street-which is in a Black community," she told Elle. Matsoukas also explained that the car Slim drove when he got pulled over was specifically chosen because of what she observed while visiting the neighborhood in which Rice's murder occurred. Everything is based on authenticity," Matsoukas told Elle. "I had actually scouted Cleveland the year before, and I went to visit the site where he was killed in the playground. His story was in the back of the creators' minds as well. The 2014 shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice also occurred in Cleveland-a dominant motivator for the #BlackLiveMatter movement. Two other points? As Queen pointed out in the opening scene, Ohio is one of 25 states that still imposes the death penalty.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |