Blu-ray Review Get Out Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

Matt Hough

Get Out Blu-ray Review

A horror movie with deeper sociological implications that are only partially realized, Jordan Peele’s Get Out to its credit strives for more of the psychological horror of The Shining or Rosemary’s Baby rather than the gross-out gore fests of most of today’s horror films.

[review]

 

[mattCR]

I apparently loved this movie much more than the reviewer, as I thought it was a pretty hilarious romp not just into the horror elements, but also into a play on black roles in the horror genre.

In fact, I thought the laziness that the review points out was really purposeful plays on tired tropes, rather than the tired tropes themselves; and the call backs to the way in which these roles are traditionally cast.

I guess, for me, this is a very dark comedy where I felt some members were in on the joke, and others were not

 

[Jason_V]

Sorry Matt, but I have to disagree with your assessment. From the very beginning, it is very apparent what intended message is here. You don't need a second or third viewing to capture what the movie is saying. (And that's coming from a white guy.) Get Out is all about the forced assimilation of other races (in this case, African Americans) by "the majority" (Caucasians). It's not a hidden message, it's plain as day. Nor is it subtle...if you want to bother looking past the horror aspects of the film.

And here's where the mastery came in for me: you can enjoy the film on a basic, horror level. It's not overly bloody, but it holds enough jumps and action for that audience. But the real story is changing people to conform instead of embracing their differences.

I don't need to see Get Out again, but I damn well enjoyed and admired it.

 

[Matt Hough]

Sorry Matt, but I have to disagree with your assessment. From the very beginning, it is very apparent what intended message is here. You don't need a second or third viewing to capture what the movie is saying. (And that's coming from a white guy.) Get Out is all about the forced assimilation of other races (in this case, African Americans) by "the majority" (Caucasians). It's not a hidden message, it's plain as day. Nor is it subtle...if you want to bother looking past the horror aspects of the film.

And here's where the mastery came in for me: you can enjoy the film on a basic, horror level. It's not overly bloody, but it holds enough jumps and action for that audience. But the real story is changing people to conform instead of embracing their differences.

I don't need to see Get Out again, but I damn well enjoyed and admired it.

I think you misread some of my comments. I never said a second of third viewing was necessary to ferret out the film's themes. They're clear as day. My comments about multiple viewings have to do with noticing what's going on in several actors' performances which are obscured by the subterfuge going on in the film's narrative. The film gains in layered power and effect on a second or third viewing. I don't think that can be argued.

 

[Jason_V]

Sorry Matt, but I have to disagree with your assessment. From the very beginning, it is very apparent what intended message is here. You don't need a second or third viewing to capture what the movie is saying. (And that's coming from a white guy.) Get Out is all about the forced assimilation of other races (in this case, African Americans) by "the majority" (Caucasians). It's not a hidden message, it's plain as day. Nor is it subtle...if you want to bother looking past the horror aspects of the film.

And here's where the mastery came in for me: you can enjoy the film on a basic, horror level. It's not overly bloody, but it holds enough jumps and action for that audience. But the real story is changing people to conform instead of embracing their differences.

I don't need to see Get Out again, but I damn well enjoyed and admired it.

I think you misread some of my comments. I never said a second of third viewing was necessary to ferret out the film's themes. They're clear as day. My comments about multiple viewings have to do with noticing what's going on in several actors' performances which are obscured by the subterfuge going on in the film's narrative. The film gains in layered power and effect on a second or third viewing. I don't think that can be argued.

I respect you Matt, so I won't belabor the point. I can only go by what is written in the review.

 

[mattCR]

Two Matts in this conversation is confusing and I may be missing content.. but.. Jason, your "about the force assimilation" is a WAY WAY different message than I, or anyone I know, took from the film.

 

[Jason_V]

Well, think about it. White folks are taking black men, hypnotizing them and making them into "acceptable" norms in that society.

Sure, you can say this is all metaphor for the unease black people (or any minority) feels in society. But it goes deeper than that. This isn't "just" the deaths of young, black men as we see in the news; this is about making them assimilate to the majorities norms and leaving behind the cultural things that make them who they are. Losing who you are is more frightening than the boogeyman in the closet, at least for me.

 

[mattCR]

I think the way I took it is that the black characters in many of these films are disposable characters; they are killed off early and often. In this film, they are just as disposable.. the police never comes looking for them. I didn't take it so much as the unease about how society feels about the deaths of black men, more about the fact that society doesn't care enough to notice.. and especially not within the horror film landscape.

I thought the storyline you are referring to isn't so much about culture assimilation as much as it is that casting and tropes are such that they are defined far more by type as much as color, and the type casting element within these films is pretty point blank.

I also thought this film, along with "Cabin in the Woods" are great attacks on the way in which stereotypes are used to define characters and expectations, and that play on expectations, especially surrounding the daughter and grandmother, was really well done.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I also thought this film, along with "Cabin in the Woods" are great attacks on the way in which stereotypes are used to define characters and expectations

I agree completely with that! My wife and I went to see "Get Out" in theaters, and immediately after the movie ended, our first thought was, "We should rewatch Cabin In The Woods". They're not the same film, of course, but they share a sensibility, and I think fans of one would likely enjoy the other. And Bradley Whitford is great in both!

 

[mattCR]

BTW, this is a good dissection of the issues being discussed..

https://youtu.be/ubNKSgdT1FQ

 

[WillG]

Well, think about it. White folks are taking black men, hypnotizing them and making them into "acceptable" norms in that society.

I just watched this last night and I didn't quite get this out for the movie. For me it kind of falls apart once it's revealed that

Spoiler

the black people are literally being used as vessels for "brain swapping"

.

To me it almost becomes the opposite and it's about elite, white liberals trying too hard to assimilate with tone deaf and cliched ways of relating to black people (notice how two characters at two different points in the movie use almost identical phrasing when speaking of their admiration of Obama and Tiger Woods).

And nothing personal to anyone, but I did find it refreshing that this movie put liberalism under a microscope. Pretty rare from a Hollywood film these days.

 

[Mark-P]

I just watched this as the kick-off to my Halloween horror movie marathon. I think it's possibly one of the best suspense movies I've seen it quite a while.

Well, think about it. White folks are taking black men, hypnotizing them and making them into "acceptable" norms in that society.

Sure, you can say this is all metaphor for the unease black people (or any minority) feels in society. But it goes deeper than that. This isn't "just" the deaths of young, black men as we see in the news; this is about making them assimilate to the majorities norms and leaving behind the cultural things that make them who they are. Losing who you are is more frightening than the boogeyman in the closet, at least for me.

Jason, did you miss the ending of the movie?

Spoiler

That's not what they were doing. They were transplanting parts of the brain of the customers into the victim so that they could extend their life in a new body.
But yes, racism is still an essential theme because one of the reasons they were choosing black victims is because they believed that black lives don't matter and wouldn't be missed.

 

[Jason_V]

I didn't miss it, Mark. I know what the movie says is going on and I also know that explanation can very easily be a cover for a larger message the filmmaker doesn't think will fly.

My point still stands: the young black men are being co-opted by white society to be something closer to what the latter wants.