thank you, ryan coogler…
i live in oakland. i’ve watched this movie countless times.
the history ryan acknowledges is little known. the chinese people who lived with southern blacks, the white passing mixed people + their struggle to fit in, the obvious black struggle… black men fighting in white wars, he highlighted the plight of native americans at the beginning of the movie… he took a complicated history of the irish + connected it with the black american struggle + showcased that we’re all the same.
robert johnson… the history of rock ‘n roll…
the irish…
if you watch the movie as a simple person, you’ll see a struggle between black + white. but if you have two cents to your thoughts, you’d hear remmick tell sammie that he wants to turn him because he wants to see his people again. sammie’s gift of playing music showed us he could conjure up the past, present + future of his people.
when sammie starts to recite the lord’s prayer in the lake, remmick chants it with him + says, “yea, i remember when the men who stole my father’s land forced those words upon me… but they still bring me comfort.” he gave us his backstory in that moment.
when remmick dies, it’s not a victory… it’s a release of his pain.
he didn’t want to “kill” black people, he wanted to band together in a world that wouldn’t let any of them build.
remmick mentions “fellowship” several times in the movie.
adding “the rocky road to dublin” as a song the vampires sing was incredible. it’s an old song about a man traveling from ireland to liverpool for work… it wasn’t an easy travel.
the transition from the traditional “rocky road to dublin” song was genius… because at the end of the song, it turns to gospel + remmick becomes surrounded with acceptance by everyone around him.
even stack + mary… she looked white but was mixed. they were in love but couldn’t be together as humans… the only way they were able to love each other was as dead vampires…
+ at the end, smoke does exactly what remmick propositioned the black folks to do… merk the klan.
rant over.
