Judas And The Black Messiah

"The Panthers and the klan are one and the same. Their aim is to sow hatred and inspire terror." Words spoken by angry white men. Hmmm. We've heard similar disinformation recently haven't we.  

Packing the same real life origins and emotional punch as Spike Lee's 2018 film Blackkklansman, Judas And The Black Messiah comes along at a troubled time, only weeks after the most powerful racist on Earth was kicked out of presidential office and his gun toting supporters stormed the Capitol building when he beckoned. When you watch this and reach it's angering conclusion you'd be thinking to yourself "at least things in America are better now" and seconds later you'll remember that it's only the fashions and haircuts that have changed. America is as racist now as it was then. Judas And The Black Messiah shows us the results of when that hate is part of the establishment. 

In 1968 the Black Panther Party was thorn in the side of the establishment. Fred Hampton, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton had got the attention of the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover wanted them gone. A car thief called Bill O'Neal (Lakeith Stanfield) was arrested and given a choice of jail or rat duty, rat duty meaning going undercover with the Illnois chapter of the Black Panthers to gather intel on Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) for his FBI handler Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons). Bill took to his new job like a fish to water and his position in the organisation rose as Fred's name began to ring out amongst the disenfranchised and disillusioned of Chicago. Then friendships and loyalties started to make things that little bit more complicated.

The 2021 Academy Awards are taking place in April this year and it will be a crime if Lakeith Stanfield isn't at least nominated for Best Actor. He's amazing as a man torn between worlds, colour and loyalties. At first it will be Daniel Kaluuya that catches your eye with his charismatic, commanding, showboating take on the Black Messiah but gradually you'll realise that it's Judas that's stealing the limelight with a squirming, anguished turn that will make you both hate and, amazingly enough, empathise with him. He's a bad guy but he's a recognisably human one. Watching him slowly come apart as the screws are turned on him make things unbearably tense, even if you know how the story plays out.

It's a film you're better off going into cold because knowing the outcome will take away slightly from the final moments, a brilliantly put together montage of images, documentary footage and words on the screen that will leave you rattled. Throughout the movie a feeling of foreboding and fate settles over the story, a sense of "the house always wins" and the characters themselves know it, and seem to be at peace with it. How they react and interact with each other gives the film a warmth that at once feels at odds with the horrors they are facing and at the same time it suits the material perfectly. A grieving laugh over a bodily function, a shy build up to a kiss, the sheer joy of seeing a friend return after a long time. Scenes what imbue a hard, harsh story with so much heart.

Kaluuya and Stanfield nail the main roles but the supporting characters played by Algee Smith (Euphoria, Detroit), Ashton Sanders (Moonlight) and Dominique Fishback (The Deuce) add real backbone too. Fishback plays Deborah Johnson, partner to Fred, and she does superb work. She's really one to watch. Just watch her eyes in her last scene. Not a word spoken but emotion and brutal acceptance swirling across them. Her expression as a microcosm of the African American experience all across that country. It's here you'll break. 

Judas And The Black Messiah is streaming online now. It's very good indeed and hopefully will get a cinema release later in the year. Watch it and learn that ignoring history dooms us to repeat it.