Embedded Files
By Sophia Doshi
We never know what we have until it's gone.
When the first note of "Last Time (I Seen the Sun)", sung by Miles Caton alongside Alice Smith, I lost it. I cried my way through the rest of the scene and the credits. Anyone with siblings would likely share a similar sentiment; there is nothing like a sibling's love. Soon after I stopped crying, I texted my brother, "Do you wanna get matching tattoos?" He said yes. "Last Time (I Seen the Sun)" is my favorite song in the movie—I'm listening to it right now, and I feel warm but sad—but "I Lied to You" is also an incredible song. I love my brother (shoutout to you, bro).
⚠️Spoilers ahead!
Sinners was a masterclass in underlying symbolism and parallels. Director Ryan Coogler knew exactly what he was doing. I drew my own conclusions and did more research on some of the metaphors I might have missed, so here's what I have for you:
Italian Wine and Irish Beer - Smoke and Stack are wearing blue and red throughout the movie. In one scene, the alcohol set to be served was 'Italian wine and Irish beer'. Did you know that the Irish Mob is recognizable by the color blue, and the Italian Mafia is known by the color red? Well, now you know.
Vampiric Cultural Appropriation - In addition to sucking the life and blood out of the victims at the Juke, the vampires also sucked the culture out of the black people. Their siphoning of life is an allegory for how white people have been appropriating black culture for centuries. The fact that Remmick and his Klan lackeys happen to be sucking the culture out of the Juke attendees—we saw this when they tried to play their way into the Juke—informs the allegory overall.
Mary - Played by the drop-dead (pun intended) gorgeous Hailee Steinfeld, Mary contributed to multiple different sorts of symbolism in Sinners. When she went out to meet Remmick, had a bad experience (obviously) and turned her back to go back to the Juke, she was attacked. That was because Stack had taught her to defend herself, but not to keep her eye on the enemy. She turned her back because Stack never had to watch his, since Smoke always had his back.
Another Mary metaphor is that she and Stack had to go to Hell—get bit by Remmick, die and come back to life as soulless vampires—to be together because of the intolerance for perceivably interracial relationships at the time (I say perceivable because in the film, Mary was, I think, 12.5% black).
The Crossroads - Sinners is based on a story about Robert Johnson, who is said to have sold his soul for mastery of the guitar. Contributing to this tale is the fact that his recording career only lasted seven months. Preacherboy's character was based on Johnson, as Sammie came into contact with Remmick, who many say was an embodiment of the Devil.
Melodious Rebellion - Music has long been seen as a force of peaceful rebellion. Whether obvious or implicit, such as "Born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen, "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga or "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones, it has been highlighting movements for centuries. The vampires' attack on the Juke and the black people enjoying the music within was a metaphor for attempts to diffuse peaceful resistance.
Brothers in Another Life - Vampires cannot see themselves in the mirror. So try as he might, Stack will never be able to see Smoke in himself in a mirror. Ouch. Vampires also cannot go out in sunlight, as it burns them alive. "Last time I seen my brother. Last time I seen the sun."
Coogler also directed Black Panther 1 & 2, and Michael B. Jordan starred alongside the late Chadwick Boseman in the former. They grew very close on set and remained close friends after filming and release. In the last scene where Killmonger (Jordan) is alive, he watches the sun set next to T'Challa (Boseman) before he passes away peacefully. Four years later, Boseman passed away. That's what makes Stack's quote "Last time I seen my brother. Last time I seen the sun. And just for a few hours... we was free." so potent. I am unsure if this was intentional, but it gets me choked up.
Sumberged in Religion - This one is certainly more obvious, but when Remmick is about to kill Sammie, he forcibly shoves him down repeatedly into the body of water. This looks like an involuntary baptism, which refrences colonization. While Sammie is arguably already Christian due to his father, he doesn't practice it with the same passion as his friends and family. But as history relays (and tends to repeat itself), white Christian men guising themselves under the "need to civilize the uncivilized" converted many native Africans and African Americans to Christianity. This seems to be the underlying metaphor in the submergence scene.
The Hero Twins - Upon doing more research, Smoke and Stack are said to have stories very similar to that of the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who were prominent figures in ancient Mayan mythology. The Twins embark on adventures that eventually lead them to Xibalba, the Underworld. Their stories are recorded in the Popol Vuh, a K'iche' text that tells their story of life, death and rebirth. The twins outsmart the Lord of Death and become celestials, being the Moon (Stack) and Sun (Smoke).
White Horse - After the night of fighting, Sammie pulls up to the church in a 1930s-style car. In the background of the scene, you can see a man sitting on a cart harnessed to a white horse. The first of the four horsemen of the apocalypse rides a white horse, and he symbolizes Christ or the Antichrist. That is a nod to Sammie's protection by Christianity the night before.
Bo & Grace - Bo and Grace's characters run a grocery store in Sinners, which is a nod to real history and how Chinese immigrants came to the US and settled in the Mississippi Delta. At the time, the stores owned by Chinese immigrants served the Black community when the white community would not. According to The Untold Story of America's Southern Chinese, more than 70% of the Mississippi Delta population in 1940 purchased their groceries and everyday goods from a small Chinese community comprising only around 743 people.
I still think Sinners is underrated. Not enough people are talking about it to satisfy how much I loved this film. It is so different than any film we've seen released in the last couple decades, and it was released at a perfect time. It's a commentary on faith, love and culture that people need reminding was a prevalent part of black history in the 1900s. We can never let ourselves forget about that complex time in history, as it still informs American culture today.
Image from Slate
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