To understand the term racism, one has to realize that racism has always existed among humans and it’s invented by humans: you won’t see it with any other creatures. To understand it, one can think of it as merely treating someone differently or unfairly simply because they belong to a different part of the world or one that has a different religion or nationality. When someone believes their race is better than others people because of his or her race or color, this is the essence of racism.
The word ‘racism’ started to make its first manifestation in the early 20th Century but the idea that a particular group of people is of upper stature has been around for ample time. In the 15th Century and 16th Century, African peoples were considered to be lower than any race. They use them as slaves, similar to how the Egyptians used Jewish people as slaves.
Cinema as a medium is among the most powerful and connected medium, and when it comes to a sensitive subject like racism, cinema has spoken a lot with the stories and taught a lot about the history it has and why one should avoid racism. There are dozens of feature films and documentaries about the subject. But I always think that “Fruitvale Station” stands out different from it.
It’s New Year’s Eve, and most of the world is out with friends and family. Roads are jammed and crowded, and you think it best to take a train rather than remain stuck on roads on last day of the year. The movie is based on a last train of the day of Oscar Grant (Michal B. Jordan). The film starts with a question asked by his girlfriend, Sphina (Melonie Diaz) about an affair; he lies about it with open eyes. He is also a dad of a 4-year-old daughter who he loves a lot. Later you see him driving to the supermarket where he used to work before he got fired for being late mostly. Things got rough at the supermarket, and he is on the verge of dealing weed again; he remembers his mother’s last visit to him in prison—and the film flashes back to a scene where he regrets what he has done and the position he was in. It was his mother’s birthday, so he buys crabs and flirts with a young woman at the counter. And later he reaches his mother’s house, his mother suggests that he and his friends take the train rather than drive.
While he was on the train with his girlfriend and friends, they get into a fight; cops arrive to break up an already ended fight and stopped at the Fruitvale BART station. Oscar and his friends get down on the ground; the police are abusive and harsh seem eager to escalate the situation. Grant and friends respond with hostility. He is being held face down and unarmed on floor struggling, and this is where tragedy happens: he gets shot by one of the officers, and his last words where “why would you shoot me, men? I have a small daughter.”
When you are dealing with such a harsh, true story, it is imperative to write and execute it well, and debutant Ryan Coogler has done a phenomenal job with it. The story has a personal impact on Ryan as he is an Oakland native. He made the script from the real event by implementing public records and findings from the news into the account. He talked with his family and worked with the attorney on Grant’s case and gave it a fictionalized change by keeping the reality alive. The example of it you can see in two scenes of the movie…one is a scene where a pit-bull died in his hand after a car accident. It was inspired by a real incident that happened to his brother and where he throws away a big bag of marijuana to show he is changing. In reality, such an incident never took place.
Speaking of a cinematic aspect of the movie, it is shot in black and white with rough texture. Coogler has smartly used all kinds of tricks. A style of the film is a documentary-like hand-held camera, to keep this from seeming like a middlebrow content film. The pace of the film is excellent, each conversation, each phone call, every time flashback serves to raise the tension that will explode at the climax of the film. When it comes, it feels preventable, not inevitable. Cooler did an exceptional work of showcasing the incident in a perfect manner, which allows the viewer to experience and judge the situation and characters for themselves. The movie was made of a minimal budget of $1 million and short in two weeks. It was the first solo film of the talented Michal B. Jordan, who does a charismatic act where he literally transformers himself into the Oscar Grant character.
The movie shows both the good and bad sides of Oscar Grant; they have indicated that he was a convicted felon, a drug dealer, but at the same time, a young man and father who was just trying to make a living like many out there. Whatever he was, the outcome was not something he deserved. The movie has some flaws. There is no doubt about it, but it still focuses on its subject’s humanity and assesses the tragedy on a personal rather than explicitly sociopolitical level—many historical movie deals with significant events, like wars or revolutions. “Fruitvale Station” is a quiet, unassuming story about the shooting of one common man. Some data of activist organization claims estimated that one in three African American men in the United States will be incarcerated at some point in their life.
“Fruitvale Station” showed and won in both Sundance and Cannes Film festivals. It is widely regarded by many critics and viewers. It’s a must-watch in case you have not seen it yet. The movie doesn’t answer why it occurs, but it gives you a lifetime message. You can catch this movie on Netflix now.
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Excellent article..