Movie: Sinners (Ryan Coogler, 2025)
Remmick is no Eric Clapton. Sure, he is a vampire and his methods aren't the most gentle, but he is not out there to "Keep Brittain White". In fact, he'd probably rather destroy Brittain. Its people oppressed him and his community just for being Irish, and all he wants now is a bit of cultural exchange with people who have experienced similar horrors. Maybe he is delusional, and maybe his actions will not lead to a multi-racial coalition of the underclass, but he is certainly right about the alternative. "This world's already left you dead, won't let you build, won't let you fellowship." The Ku Klux Klan is ready to attack in the morning. What do you have to lose?
Sinners has the scene of the decade, but does too little with its implications. My sympathy for the vampire isn't just my white perspective talking. Coogler wants such a response; he knows what he is doing having the vampires sing old Irish folk music, and he knows what he is doing when contrasting them to the Ku Klux Klan. The Smokestack twins certainly can't be blamed for not being too keen to differentiate between separate brands of white people. They've seen Chicago, where there is officially no Jim Crow, be "just Mississippi with tall buildings" instead of cotton farms, but there must have been a way to make the same point while still building on the utopian vision of the scene where oppressed people's music from the past, present and future meets in a single take that lets black American music influences from past present and future come together and blend with each other, whitout losing their distinct sound and aesthetic It's simply glorious to see the traidtional African drumming co-exist in the same space with 1930's blues, Jimi Hendrix-inspired guitarists, synthesizers and DJ's. Adding to Coogler's genius is that Remmick is the only one who experiences what Sammy's talent is capable of conjuring. That vision gives him the idea to use Sammy to bring to life his own Irish ancestry and culture, without supposedly erasing his black compatriots presence:
"I want your story Sammie, I want your songs. And you gonna have mine.
Our father, who art in heaven, hollowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us for our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power, the glory forever and ever, Amen
Long ago, the men who stole my fathers land forced these words upon us. I hated those men but the words still bring me comfort. Those men lied to themselves then lied to us. They told stories of a God above and a devil below and lies of a dominion of man over beast and earth. We are earth and beast and God. We are woman and man. We are connected, you and I to everything.”
It's worth publishing this monologue in full. It's brilliant, provocative writing, especially in the knowledge that the juke joint where Sammy is playing is a trap set by the Klan. The vampires essentially save the majority of the guests from getting killed, so if you are Coogler and have gotte this far, why not go even further? Why not imagine how music, dance, and joy can connect and unite opressed people of different ethnicities and ancestries against a common enemy? The film's key scene, dialogue and plot machinations set up exactly something like that and it would have been extremely cool to create a scene in which the Klan is defeated through the combined forces of Irish and black (working class) culture, past, present and future. It would have been a utopian vision that's still sufficiently bleak (only through vampirism can America's sins be cleansed!) for audiences that believe optimistic futuristic visions are immoral in Trump's America. I am glad Mamdani became Mayor of New York, because aside from him contemporary American progressivism has a very limited vision, and Sinners suffers for it. Ryan Coogler will however probably use his upcoming blank check on more interesting things than the millionth version of The Odyssey.
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