Mangrove

Steve McQueen has provided an insight into the institutional racism that was commonly faced by the West Indian community in London in the 1970's which sadly continued and, to an extent, continues far beyond the events portrayed. The Mangrove paints a picture of a community under siege, invited to the UK to fill employment needs after the war, but later resented for their mere presence and desire to create a sense of community.

A film of two parts, the early character development underscores the great diversity of the West Indian community, presenting the common dilemma to stay and to build a future or to leave and accept defeat. Growing up in the UK in the 1970's it's not hard to remember how much that casual racism was the norm, whether in the playground or in the streets. McQueen captures the normality of that and how it facilitated those in authority to act in a way that would now, in general, be seen as wholly unacceptable.

The film will draw obvious comparisons with the recent Chicago 7 film, but for me, this was a far more robust production with better character development and acting and less emphasis on dress up and wigs than Aaron Sorkin's effort. It certainly had a far greater sense of realism, place and time. Comparing the filmed version to the actual events, McQueen has been true to events and to the people involved - something which makes the continued harassment of the people involved for years after the events portrayed even more chilling!

Closing Time!

Deeper meaning to the word Mangrove on How the plant it is specialised in to survive in the most Extreme conditions. The is the backbone to the True Story of Caribbean community in the UK via 1960s.

This sad but also uplifting tale of immigrants in Notting Hill in 1968. No matter what colonialist country we refer to being USA UK South Africa Australia etc the story is Universal and ever Relevant in 2020. No spoilers

Marcus Kirby & Letetia Wright deliver there best work to date. Greatly directed piece by Steve McQueen who was able to deliver us a very real Setting.

The initial (and longest) of Director Steve McQueen's Small Axe anthology is set in the Notting Hill section of London in the late 60s/early 70s. Based on a true story of a clash between police and the Caribbean community and centered around a local restaurant, the case became known as the Mangrove Nine. McQueen and co-writer Alastair Siddons do a fine job of creating a feel for the time and place. The characters are fleshed out and given the space to become real persons instead of distant 'historical figures'. The screenplay does occasionally verge on preachiness, but, the acting by Shaun Parkes, Letitia Wright, Malachi Kirby and others keep it far enough away. The policemen are more stereotypical -- including the main villain, PC Pulley (Sam Spruell) -- but they are well acted, as well. The second half is dominated by a trial (there were multiple), and is a bit less interesting, if well enough handled. The problem of trying encapsulate a lot of incidents and twists and turns into a coherent hour or so, lead to some editing and writing issues. MANGROVE is a solid docu-drama and a good lead off to the Small Axe series.

Some great performances, Kirby as Darcus Howe particularly bringing to the life such a well-known figure. It's a TV movie so relatively light on production values, and some of the police characters were grotesquely cartoonish, but certainly a gripping two hours

I haven't watched any Steve McQueen films until now and I had to say that I was blown away. This film was incredibly on a storytelling perspective. McQueen does an excellent job at making the audience feel for his characters and understand the story behind them and the events surrounding the story. Each character, who is a real person by the way, is interesting and this is mostly due to the performances and writing. Letitia Wright's performance is easily one of my favorite of the year and I really hope that she gets recognition for it. Every other performance here is great to. There is not one bad performance in this film. Everyone does an outstanding job and it seems like this film will get that recognition for its performances. The writing is top notch. I can tell from his writing that McQueen is interested in telling this story and the way he writes his dialogue is perfect. His direction is also very well done too. This man knows what he is doing. The story follows 9 African American's put on trial for a protest that was squashed by the police and made to look like a riot. A lot of this film is in court and usually, movies that primarily focus on court cases don't do a lot for me but this was special. I was always engaged in these scenes. We get to see a different side of the police around the world, not just in America and it's infuriating to see how grossly the police were in this scenario. My main issue with the film was that sometimes, the cinematography felt a little stale. Most of my issues are with the beginning of the film in fact. It's just not as interesting as the rest of the film. I'm not saying that the first part was boring but I was way more investing in everything after the beginning of the film. This a great film for anyone to check out if they want a compelling story or another knock out of the park from Steve McQueen.