Hey this is a late reply but I had a couple of thoughts and I was curious to hear your take on them. I just watched the movie and I’m a little conflicted, but I basically have ~80% the same takeaways as you. There are just a couple things that left me wondering if there is actually some merit in the movie.

So, my dad has some pretty fucked up and racist views… not the type of person that would do the vile shit in this movie, but probably the type that would think that these sort of executions don’t still happen. So whenever I watch media that tries to shine a light on things like this, I can’t help but view it from his perspective - because to this day I still butt heads with him on issues like this.

This is kinda hard to articulate but I’ll do my best: As fucking infuriating as it is to say, being around my dad and other conservatives growing up basically made me realize that a lot of people have a sick tendency to “play both sides” when it comes to depictions of violence against two different parties, no matter how clear-cut it is who the victims and the oppressors are. What I’m getting at is, if the film had shown the victims exacting Django-esque, bloody, revenge on the white women, I can envision someone like my dad coming away thinking, “Wow that was just fucked all around!” Instead of, “Oh my god, literal lynchings still happen to this day”. So in that way, I thought it was powerful that the film brutally confronts you with just how undeserving these poor girls were.

That’s about as many olive branches I can extend to the movie.

Cause at the same time it’s like you said - maybe none of that sort of nuance matters when, at the end of the day, the film just makes POC feel bad. It’s kinda paradoxical - on one hand, I would love for my dad and people who think like him to watch this movie and to be made immensely uncomfortable. But on the other hand, I can totally see how exhausting it must be to see characters like those girls being used as sort of “teaching tools” that get atrocities inflicted upon them, just so racist people can hopefully learn something.

And then there’s the reality that a racist is probably just gonna turn this movie off after the first 20 minutes anyway, so it ends up just being a horrendously upsetting display for people who already agree with the filmmaker’s message.

Anyway, I’m rambling. I thought your comment was really thoughtful and just wanted to chime in. Have a good one :)