It’s time to rewatch Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’
When “Get Out” came out in 2017 it was terrifying.
It’s scarier now.
Jordan Peele’s film used the horrors of racism to fuel an actual horror movie. A really good one, too — one of the best scary movies of the last few years, and certainly the most relevant.
The film hasn’t changed, of course. The world has. We have.
The horrors of “Get Out” are not limited to a movie; they never were. But the growing boldness of racists and bigoted behavior bring its message into even sharper focus today.
The takedown of phony liberal wokeness is still brutal
What seemed like poetic license used to make a point now seems steeped in elements of reality. The takedown of phony liberal wokeness is brutal in its effectiveness. Watching it again now rekindles the original thrill of seeing an expertly made horror film. Peele won an Oscar for the screenplay, and his direction is taut and inviting, all the better to scare you.
But it’s also kind of depressing. Like any good tale of terror, the premise begins innocently enough. Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) is making plans with his girlfriend, Rose Armitage (Allison Williams), to visit her family in upstate New York. He’s a little nervous. Chris is Black and Rose is white.
Don’t worry, Rose assures him, and then drops what’s become the most iconic go-to statement of faux support since, “Some of my best friends are Black.”
“My dad would’ve voted for Obama a third time if he could’ve.”
Perfect. Of course later Rose’s father, Dean (Bradley Whitford), repeats the line. It’s funny, it’s cringey, it’s so obviously inauthentic. But at that point we don’t know how inauthentic. It just seems like a stupid thing for a white person to say to a Black person to signal their supposed solidarity. It’s embarrassing, not dangerous.
Or is it?
What the movie’s ending could’ve looked like
If you haven’t seen “Get Out,” you should watch it before you read further. You should watch it anyway. Whatever the case, spoilers abound from here on.
A quick synopsis: While outwardly welcoming, Dean and his wife Missy (Catherine Keener) are actually running a bizarre scheme where they kidnap Black people and Dean, a surgeon, grafts the essence or soul or something (the details are a little fuzzy) of white friends onto the person they’ve captured.
Two of those people are the groundskeeper and housekeeper, who act strangely. They are actually Dean’s parents, we learn, moved into the bodies of a Black man and woman.
During a party Dean literally auctions the unsuspecting Chris off, while Rose distracts him. Chris ultimately thwarts the plan, killing most of the Armitage family along the way. He’s rescued by his friend Rod (Lil Rel Howery), who has been warning Chris of exactly this kind of thing all along.
At least that’s the theatrical ending. Peele also shot an ending where the police arrive as Chris is choking Rose. He’s arrested and charged with murder, the authorities unwilling to believe a Black man’s story, even if it’s true. In the commentary Peele says it was just too downbeat, too bleak, to end the film that way, especially with the country headed in the direction it was.
Now the country has gone further that way. I’m thankful for the relatively happy ending Peele went with.
Rewatching ‘Get Out’ in 2020 puts it in a different context
Watching “Get Out” is a reminder of how far we’ve traveled in the wrong direction. I know the dangers of a white person saying, oh, I saw “Get Out,” now I understand racism exists. It’s not as if people of color needed to be made aware. But re-watching the film in the wake of not just the social justice movement, but more accurately the events that have ignited it, puts the movie in a different context.
It’s somewhat similar to what watching the “Borat” sequel is like. What once seemed shocking now seems familiar. In “Borat,” a visit to a rally lousy with white supremacists plays like a slightly idiotic version of a straight news report.
It didn’t take long. It was only a few months after “Get Out” premiered that white nationalists and neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville. Now seeing Confederate battle flags flying, Proud Boys marching, loud-mouthed supposed boycotts of professional sports because people don’t like players speaking out for racial justice — these are more headlines in the never-ending news cycle.
Of course what goes on in “Get Out” is more subtle.
We’ve reached an era when small-mindedness is flaunted
But think about the party scene. It’s memorable particularly for the bit where the movie gets its title. LaKeith Stanfield, who is abducted at the beginning of the movie, is now an uptight dullard who doesn’t even know how to fist bump, at least until Chris takes a photo of him and the flash briefly causes him to revert to his true self.
Think about what else is going on in the scene, though. As Chris walks around, meeting friends of the Armitages, they size him up. They don’t try to hide it, either. They are treating him as property, something to be evaluated, something less than. It’s disturbing, because it isn’t the way people act — sure, there are racists and bigots, but they generally are not so open about their misguided beliefs.
Except they are. Whatever your political bent, there is no question that racists and bigots feel much freer to express themselves openly. Their shame has disappeared. The people at the party in “Get Out” are insulated; their reprehensible ideas are kept inside a compound, shared among like-minded people. In real life the dress-up toy soldiers who show up armed and air-headed at social-justice protests flaunt their stupidity, their small-mindedness. They don’t care who knows. They want people to know.
One person at the party is less obvious about his intentions. Jim Hudson (Stephen Root) is an art dealer. He chats amiably with Chris, a photographer, praising him for his eye, seemingly sincere in his compliments. There is, naturally, an ulterior motive. Jim is blind; he wants to inhabit Chris’ body so that he can see again. Jim wins the auction.
Watching “Get Out” now is a reminder of how confidently Peele reveals uncomfortable truths about racism and its prevalence, dragging us out of any notion of ambivalence. He refuses to let the audience off the hook.
Good. We need it.
Whatever your political bent, there is no question that racists and bigots feel much freer to express themselves openly.