My eyes almost fell out when I saw a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes for Get Out , but I would have to say that this film truly deserves this rating and is definitely my top three movies in 2017 already, and I know it. “I want to make a movie that people would want to watch it again” director Jordan Peele firmly stated during an interview for his new movie Get Out , and I really think he did it for me for this film. After watching Get Out three days ago, some of the scenes still linger in my mind because of what they imply and how Jordan Peel cleverly insert social contents that are for sure conversation starters. And I think if I watch it again, I would probably find even more symbolism and interesting mise-en-scene to deconstruct.
**SPOILERS ALERT!!!!!**
This film, how should I put it, is so brilliant and smart in so many ways that I still cannot wrap my head around this. I was telling my friends that the experience is basically playing one of the best escape room that you can find, and you are trying to piece everything in the room together in order to solve the puzzle. I never have a movie made me feel this way, so if you say I am madly in love with Get out then it is not an exaggeration.
I admit that it is actually hard to catch some of the meanings when I am an Asian who never experience African American culture and not even have a friend who is African American. However, this film does not need you to be or experience a certain culture to be understandable to the majority elements that it is trying to portray.
Dating his white girlfriend Rose Armitage( played by Allison Williams) for five months, Chris (played by Daniel Kaluuya) was nervous when Rose decided to take him to her parents house in the countryside for a weekend. Everything started to feel sketchy when I started to pick up little pieces of some of the satire that is thrown in this thriller.
It all started with when they hit a deer and stop the car, and they a police asked for Chris’s ID.
- One thing I noticed in this part, I dont know if it intentional or unintentional, there was a shot when Chris and Rose got out from the car, and there were blood on the headlight on Chris’s side when Roses’ side of the headlight was clean. I interpreted that as a foreshadow of Chris’ fate later on in the film. People may argue that it is just how they hit the deer, but that frame was pretty clear for me when it took a medium shot of the car from the front while both of them get out from the car at the same time. It show a comparison between these two characters.
- Remember how nice Rose was when she “stood up” for Chris when the cop asked for his ID even though he did not drive? She said “Fxxx that. You dont need to show him the ID”
For people who are non-white, it is hard for us to imagine what would happened if we talk like that to a police officer. We probably going to get thrown in jail the next second. However, I realize that Rose true intention is that she actually do not want the cop to know Chris’ name or even put his ID in any records when the Armitage”change” him forever.
Weird decorations and the gathering
When we first see the house, it is so creepy to see a lot of deer heads and 18th century paintings of historical people. It was kind of like a contradiction that two of these items exist in the same house that gave it a chilly feeling. Since we can kind of get a sense of how a family is when you see the decoration from their house.
- There are multiple times I cringe such as when Rose’ dad states that “I would vote for Obama if he can get elected the third time” It is kind of like people would tell me I love Jackie Chen and Jeremy Lin, and it sounds like they look at my race first instead of treating me as normal people even though their intention may be good.
- When Chris attends the gathering, he gets a lot of offensive questions or even statement such as “black is the new fashion”. Of course people who already know what happened would know these are the questions they asked because they are trying to auction off Chris, but some of them are still statements or even awkward moments that people who are stereotyping another group would say and try to act naturally.
- While we see so many white people in the gathering, but there is one Asian in the crowd that stood out for me. He is Japanese, and I wonder why is there a Asian man in there? This is just how smart and amazing about Jordan Peele, because people who are Asian like me know that Japanese are often treated as the “higher class ” among all the Asian countries. I dont know how to explain it, but think about it, you definitely seen white people holding a Oil-paper umbrella under the sun? Yeah, did you realize that ? In a way, it kind of symbolize how white would think the Japanese culture is equal as American culture. That is just my own opinion, because being an Asian, I often would categorize people in America or even American Asians would categorize us into two categories: the jungle Asians and the high class one.
The deer and the lion
My best guess of the deer and the lion are two metaphors: black and white people, and the preys and the predators. It is really interesting how the film decided to put a lion stuff toy on the side of his bed, yet the deer became the weapon to kill the dad. It is a big contrast of how they should be naturally, since lion could hunt down the deer, yet the lions seems so harmless in the film. We can also trace back to how Rose’s dad was talking about how hitting a deer is great, since “they are everywhere.”Him saying killing deer is a great thing and also put a lot of deers as trophies around the house symbolizes how he sees African American people as prizes. Ironically, a creature that is so innocent like the deer became the weapon that kill the dad. Does that implies how the preys could fight back and would win if they use the right strength (antler)?
Infamous Cereal Eating Scene and Picking the Cotton
Why I think the movie is so brilliant is this particular scene. At first I thought Rose was eating cereal separately as a psychopath kind of joke, but then I realized because she does not want to mix the white (milk) with the colors (fruit loops) Furthermore, Chris “cotton picked ” to save his life. How clever is that!!!!!!
Get out made fun of this whole athlete craze in our society. I actually always wonder: What are the values that different ethnicities have that may be useful for the white business men to maximize their profit? (Indians as Mathematicians, Asians and Middle Eastern in tech companies) Different ethnicities in America often describe as the most value aspect of this country, yet do the white really see us as human beings or the objects that make money ?
I think the most important part of this movie is that it successfully let people start to have conversation about systematic racism and stereotyping. I think our society needed a conversation starter that actually make people connect and understand each other while discussing the film with each other. I also think all the actor and actresses are amazing with their great acting that fit the atmosphere of this thriller .There are so many subliminal messages in this film that I just really need to re-watch it again, because I believe there are still a lot of them I didnt catch. Bravo to a film that is so brilliantly made, and I am hoping to see more movies that can be compatible with this.
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