The Ideology of "Get Out"

“Get Out” is an American horror film written and directed by Jordan Peele, known originally for his role on the “Key and Peele” show. Although the film was conspicuously premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017, it released shortly thereafter and grossed $255 million worldwide which makes it the tenth most profitable movie of 2017.

The film brilliantly intertwines themes of horror, comedy, and social commentary. “Get Out” centers around a black photographer Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) and his white girlfriend Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) who travel to visit Rose’s family, which Chris is aptly worried about.

The majority of the movie is riddled with seemingly ordinary racial tensions between Chris and Rose’s family, the Armitage annual get-together as the exemplar. This pivotal party scene depicts the dozens of white guests ogling at Chris and perpetrating typical microaggressive acts, but with a hint of something deeper and scarier at play. The movie comes to its climax once Chris discovers the insidious intentions of the Armitage family, who wish to transplant white people’s brains into black bodies. “Get Out” ends with Chris able to escape the household after a series of bloody and deathly obstacles.

An important aspect of ideology would be the “relations of domination in the social contexts within which they are produced, transmitted, and received” (Thompson 8). In this vain, Peele was said to have written “Get Out” during Obama’s presidency, a time period where many Americans conceived of as an ‘end’ to racism. There has been an enhanced discourse in the U.S. about being in a ‘post-racial era,’ which essentially serves to dismiss the deeply entrenched systematic inequalities that still plague the U.S. Peele attempts to challenge this notion in his film.

This quintessential white, supposedly liberal, American is depicted in Peele’s movie as the Armitage family and their friends (save for the brother, Jeremy) put on a facade of being racially progressive when this is actually not the case. This facade of racial progressiveness is seen as Rose assures Chris he has nothing to be worried about since her father voted for President Obama multiple times, a party guest exclaiming that he loves Tiger Woods, another remarking on and touching Chris’ physique, and a guest asserting that “black is in fashion.”

Although their comments may appear to be harmless and perhaps even flattering on the surface, a black audience recognizes the racial insensitivities lying beneath the surface. The multiple layers that Peele presents serves as another example of the ideological framework at play, as manifest, obvious meanings make way for latent, subconscious meanings.

Another critical aspect of ideology that Peele wrestles with is the dual meaning of “subject” as being both representative of a free and autonomous individual, as well as an individual who is subjected to constraints and submits to a higher authority. Chris is an excellent example of this dual subject as he exhibits autonomy throughout the film, beginning with his decision to date Rose, choosing to go to the Armitage house, and staying despite the multiple warning signs.

However, as is typical for a horror movie, Chris also seems to be constrained by the whims of the white individuals surrounding him, who hold them there with deception at first but with force as Chris begins to see the truth. Eventually, Chris as an autonomous subject is victorious as he is able to escape the house with great difficulty.

Ultimately, “Get Out” is influenced with a layered ideological framework through its commentary on white America, as well as the day-to-day horrors black Americans must face. Peele subverts the trope of typical ‘race’ movies and addresses race in a way that the film industry has not yet seen--with thriller and horror. It will be interesting to see if Peele has any other revolutionary films on the horizon.