ETSU Buctainment recently featured the movie “Get Out” during one of their Drive-in-Movie nights. This movie came out in 2017 and is rated R. The movie, made by creators of “The Visit” and “The Gift”, shows a dark spin on a white girlfriend bringing home her black boyfriend for the very first time.
Jeremy, the main character of the film, is quickly met with a full cast of abnormal individuals and strange events. Once he arrives, he is greeted with his partner’s parents and their African American housekeeper and garden man, bringing in the view of a reminiscent south. Throughout the movie, strange events continue to happen, especially those related to race. One might even call the actions of those from suburbia, “creepy.”
The movie is a chilling thriller that goes somewhere no one thought it would ever go. However, one noticeable thing all throughout, is the racial overtone the movie has. It begins with Jeremy asking his girlfriend Rose if she has told her parents she was bringing home a black guy. These racial overtones continue as the officer asks for Jeremy’s ID when the deer hit them, as well as “the help” being Black themselves. The film represents the visual of a deep South area, post abolition of slavery.
The Black women in the kitchen and home clean and cook and the Black men in the gardens fix things and still pick agriculture. This movie does bring some awareness, in a quite thrilling way, to the racism still seen in the world today.
Overall, I think any movie that can be shown to better help identify racial issues in society, whether in an obvious way or more subtly through subtext, is a very well-done movie. I hope that ETSU can continue to show more movies like this. Racism is a very real problem, and it is my hope that through movies, literature and other forms of media — we can address it. It starts at home.
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