"Sinners" is a critically and financially successful original film that uses its 1930s Mississippi Delta setting to explore the historical context of temptation, the transcendent power of blues music, and the pervasive "virus of exploitation" that affects various communities.
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[Music]
In the midst of a Hollywood era of
sequels, remakes, and spin-offs where
many would deem original filmm to be on
the brink of death, especially in movie
theaters, something like Sinners comes
along to spice up the conversation. As a
wholly original film, Sinners is
undoubtedly a success financially and
critically with the unique ability to
entertain crowds while also sparking
thematic conversations in every single
direction. And after watching countless
interviews with Sinner's writer director
Ryan Cougler, I want to discuss the
historical context, the cultural
richness, and the many powerful symbols
throughout this movie like the church
and the juke joint, the spirituality of
the blues, and the meaning of Sammy
never dropping his guitar. And we'll
discuss this movie in three themes. The
history of temptation, the transcendence
of blues, and the virus of exploitation.
In this sinner's deep dive [Music]
[Music]
analysis theme number one, history of
temptation. Sinners is set in the 1930s
Mississippi Delta where Jim Crow law was
in its fullest effect, forcing the black
communities through the worst of living
and working conditions. Many black men
and women working as sharecroers, for
example, a lifestyle not far at all from
slavery. Not to mention the existence of
the Ku Klux Clan more than ever alive
and well. The Vulcid Act of 1919 banned
the consumption and sale of alcohol in
the United States after much support
from various religious, progressive, and
political movements with the aim to
reduce poverty, crime, waste, and
international propaganda. However, this
legalization of alcohol ultimately had
the reverse effect on society, making
conditions even worse for the black men,
women, and children. So with this
socopolitical context the film gives us,
we get a slightly stronger understanding
of how much adversity, oppression, and
trauma our characters are already
dealing with. And when conditions are
this challenging with almost literally
no way out, the environment becomes a
playground for temptation. A feeling
just about all of our characters are
wrestling with. This is largely why the
film is called Sinners. While among some
of the greatest forms of evil in the
world, historical sinners like the KKK
and even supernatural sinners like the
vampires, our central characters are
resisting, embracing or succumbing to
temptation and sin in one way or
another. most obviously the smoke stack
twins after escaping an abusive father
on a plantation and fighting in World
War I, working for Alapone in Chicago
and returning to Mississippi to continue
a life of crime to Sammy Moore
challenging the deeply religious beliefs
of his father by pursuing a frowned upon
form of music. Delta Slim becoming a
victim of alcoholism after a traumatic
set of experiences that spans across
decades. and Perlene cheating on a
husband who likely has many of his own
demons he's dealing with, just to name a
few. Even Bow and Grace Chow,
representing the Chinese families of
1930s Mississippi Delta, a racial group
at the time seen as cheap, disposable,
and voiceless by white Americans, many
of whom were first hired in the cotton
fields and eventually opened up their
own grocery stores in the towns
throughout the Mississippi Delta. But
fortunately, overall, many of the main
characters we fall in love with do their
best to conquer their demons
psychologically and supernaturally, as
we see later in the film. A conclusion
cleverly foreshadowed much earlier in
the film by the smoke stack twins
working together to kill a snake before
it bites them. A classic biblical symbol
of evil and temptation. So, let's
discuss the timeless art form that
allows our characters to overcome these
spiritual demons in the next section of this
video. Theme number two, transcendence
of blues. When we consider everything
mentioned in the previous theme, the
trauma, the oppression, the temptation
that haunts our main characters, we
begin to understand the purpose that the
church and the juke joint serve
symbolically and thematically. And the
writer director of this film, Ryan
Cougler, does a beautiful job of
explaining what the two structures
symbolize and why he juxtaposes them
against one another in this film. It was
always a conflict between church music
and secular music. You know, like the
first music to get called the devil's
music was the Delta Blues music. And it
was also that dichotomy of the same
people who would be in that juke joint
Saturday night. They might go home, wash
up, sleep for a couple hours, and take
their ass right back to the church in
the morning. And Kougler continues by
describing how the pastors passionately
condemn the juke joint as a place of
sin, very much as Sammy's father does in
the film. But he goes on in this
interview to explain how both locations
were necessary remedies for the
hardships of the black experience in
1930. It was always a conflict between
two institutions that basically had the
same thing going on. And people were
dealing with so much they were looking
for a temporary release. You know, maybe
it's more spiritual on Sunday and maybe
more carnal Saturday night, but it is a
necessary part of the human condition.
And the blues music coming out of Delta,
it leaned into the shadow. It leaned
into, like I said, the carnal desires.
It leaned into the faults and the flaws.
And as you may notice during the end of
Cougler's quote, he highlights the
pivotal role that blues music played in
those juke joints with its raw stripped
down guitar and harmonica
instrumentation with lyrics so
vulnerably reflecting on personal
experience. It felt like therapy for the
listener because it embraced the deepest
truths. No matter how unverirtuous or
unholy the words may seem, Kougler
compares it to the gangster rappers of
the 80s and 90s who very similarly
created a whole new world of controversy
in American art and culture, but were
successful because they unapologetically
gave a voice to an experience so many
were feeling deep inside. The creation
of the character Sammy Preacher Boy
Moore was heavily influenced by blues
musicians specifically coming out of the
Mississippi Delta like Charlie Patton
who arguably originated the sound, Tommy
Johnson and Robert Johnson who publicly
claimed they sold their soul to the
devil to play blues and Sunhouse who
every 5 years would go back and forth
between drinking at juke joints to
preaching in churches. The justosition
historically was always right in front
of us. And in countless interviews,
Cougler very proudly states how Delta
Blues music lives on through the
generations upon generations of new
genres that it influenced. Rock and
roll, R&B, gangster rap, trap, and even
grunge music, claiming Delta Blues is
America's biggest artistic contribution
to the world. And as you can probably
put together, this is why we get that
massively symbolic, surreal moment where
when Sammy starts to play at that juke
joint, we see countless genres of music
spanning generations before and
generations after. The genesis of Delta
Blue's music, transcending time, space,
and culture all in one moment. But as we
hear in the film, the music doesn't only
awaken the best of the human spirit. It
also awakens the very worst. And let's
video. Theme number three, virus of
exploitation. So as recently mentioned
and as mentioned in the opening
monologue of the film, Delta Blues music
spiritually brings together generations
of music and culture in the past and
future. Yet also it attracts a
particular spiritual form of evil. And
of course when we look at the film
literally by its visuals on screen, this
spiritual form of evil is the vampires.
But of course the vampires aren't just
these supernatural bad guys. They
represent something more. And if you ask
me, the societal evil these vampires and
their behaviors represent is exploitation.
exploitation.
exploitation of culture. When an art
form is so effortlessly beautiful,
infectiously influential, and pure in
originality, it awakens a type of evil
fueled by greed and hunger for power.
And the methods those evil people will
apply to capitalize on the art form are
shamelessly dishonest, manipulative, and
of course, exploitative. Talent attracts
outsiders with the greatest of power and
the worst of intentions, willing to
cross cultural boundaries to get a hold
of it. Cultural boundaries they would
never have wanted to cross into ever
before. Just like the vampires in this
film. To compare it to modern times,
think of a record label executive
signing a young and talented black
artist to a contract with an alluring
cash advance, but thieving terms and
conditions. This happens time and time
again, year after year. And the
exploitation doesn't stop at music. It
happens with sports, fine arts,
education, culture, employment, and so
on. Whether it's 2025 or it's
1932. And just like we see with the
vampires, such manipulation doesn't stop
at the top of the socioeconomic pyramid.
When one is exploited, they become
desperate. And when they become
desperate, there's a new willingness to
exploit the next person. And such a
system sparks a contagious cyclical
chain of manipulation, selfishness, and
greed, bringing people closer to one
another in the most inauthentic,
dishonest, and unloving way. Just like
the vampires, the dichotomy of coming
together to use one another versus
coming together to support one another
is symbolized by the war between the
vampires and the unbitten. And one thing
I'm personally so glad about is Ryan
Cougler didn't simplify the connection
of the vampires to just black versus
white. This facade of togetherness that
these vampires put up covers black
American, Chinese American, white
American, and even specifically Irish
American with multiple references to the
hardship, oppression, and exploitation
the Irish face with the British. And
even after the big battle, Smoke
continues to battle internally with his
own moral code as he wrestles with his
own connection with religion,
spirituality, and even his wife's
southern African-Amean folklore
traditions, but eventually very
poetically accepts an afterlife of peace
following a final release of deeprooted
hatred and thirst for vengeance after
all he's lived with and lost. And on the
other side, Stack as Smoke's twin
brother represents the alternate outcome
for the same person. Surviving as a
victim of the virus of exploitation,
accepting the morally compromised
lifestyle that the system makes so hard
to escape and living in the space
between them both. Sammy Moore lives out
a life in a world of adversity,
resisting the endless spirits of
temptation, all the while nurturing an
art form that would connect the world.
Thank God Sammy never dropped the guitar.
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