The "idealistic" story of America is one of a country that had an ugly history of slavery, denounced and rejected it, and has since been progressing towards a better and fairer society, albeit imperfectly. The alternative "cynical" story is that racism has been a core defining feature of America since its founding and that all that has changed over time has been its form.
13th comes down emphatically on the side of the second version of the story, and sets out to argue the case. The first half of the film is quite strong, with numerous shocking and discomforting segments.
The film traces the history of how slavery transitioned to Jim Crow and most recently to mass incarceration. It shows how law-and-order agendas have been loaded with racial implications that in many cases were not just undertones, but front and center.
One criticism I have is that the film loses focus at the midway point, when it ought to be consolidating its key message. It seems like the director is trying too hard to squeeze in a laundry list of "checklist" issues, like corporate influence on public policy, that are less strongly connected to the main thesis and serve to confuse and distract.
My second criticism is one that is also generally directed towards many other Netflix documentaries these days. The director takes a weighty topic and explores it from one editorial angle, yet there is not much genuine reckoning with alternative hypotheses, let alone value-neutral exploration. Indeed, it seems the very object of this genre of documentary is to "make the case" for a certain viewpoint. This becomes all the more unfulfilling when the principle is applied not just to the substance of the film, but to its style. I routinely found it difficult to follow what person was making what point, because of how the clips were spliced together to present the narrative. There was at least one sequence where the interviewees were literally completing each other's sentences. The second half of the film would have benefitted from more "show don't tell," as too many talking heads had to get their moment under the spotlight. Surely a truly powerful film is one that leaves viewers to reckon with their own inferences, rather than laying out the narrative in chapter and verse.
A sociocultural hierarchy with strong racial or ethnic elements and a seemingly permanent underclass is distressingly common in many parts of the world, both now and in the past. Is America no better than these other places? Is it worse? Is there a virtuous base to the American story, flawed as it is? How might the various versions of the American story weave together? All difficult questions that I'm not sure this film has truly grappled with, with rigour and sincerity. Of course, that would be an unfair expectation, weighty as these questions are. 13th starts out strong with a poignant and thought-provoking retrospective, but then loses focus and falls flat.
13th comes down emphatically on the side of the second version of the story, and sets out to argue the case. The first half of the film is quite strong, with numerous shocking and discomforting segments.
The film traces the history of how slavery transitioned to Jim Crow and most recently to mass incarceration. It shows how law-and-order agendas have been loaded with racial implications that in many cases were not just undertones, but front and center.
One criticism I have is that the film loses focus at the midway point, when it ought to be consolidating its key message. It seems like the director is trying too hard to squeeze in a laundry list of "checklist" issues, like corporate influence on public policy, that are less strongly connected to the main thesis and serve to confuse and distract.
My second criticism is one that is also generally directed towards many other Netflix documentaries these days. The director takes a weighty topic and explores it from one editorial angle, yet there is not much genuine reckoning with alternative hypotheses, let alone value-neutral exploration. Indeed, it seems the very object of this genre of documentary is to "make the case" for a certain viewpoint. This becomes all the more unfulfilling when the principle is applied not just to the substance of the film, but to its style. I routinely found it difficult to follow what person was making what point, because of how the clips were spliced together to present the narrative. There was at least one sequence where the interviewees were literally completing each other's sentences. The second half of the film would have benefitted from more "show don't tell," as too many talking heads had to get their moment under the spotlight. Surely a truly powerful film is one that leaves viewers to reckon with their own inferences, rather than laying out the narrative in chapter and verse.
A sociocultural hierarchy with strong racial or ethnic elements and a seemingly permanent underclass is distressingly common in many parts of the world, both now and in the past. Is America no better than these other places? Is it worse? Is there a virtuous base to the American story, flawed as it is? How might the various versions of the American story weave together? All difficult questions that I'm not sure this film has truly grappled with, with rigour and sincerity. Of course, that would be an unfair expectation, weighty as these questions are. 13th starts out strong with a poignant and thought-provoking retrospective, but then loses focus and falls flat.