JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH | FILM REVIEW
Dir: Shaka King (15, 126 mins)
Daniel Kaluuya excels in this drama about Black Panther icon Fred Hampton and the incendiary methods used by the FBI to bring him down. A firebrand political speaker, Hampton preached resistance and revolution against the oppressive policies of the police, leading the Black Panther’s Illinois chapter and uniting political organisations to work towards the betterment of his local community.
Much of the history of the Black Panther movement in the 1960s and 70s had been composed by J Edgar Hoover’s FBI, spreading distrust and suspicion of the movement. Informants were used, none more effective than William O’Neal, who got into Hampton’s inner circle and whose story the film also chronicles, with Lakeith Stanfield in the role. A petty criminal who bizarrely impersonates federal officers to steal cars and who after a misstep finds himself in the clutches of Jesse Plemon’s FBI agent, O’Neal will have his crimes wiped off the slate if he informs on Hampton for what would have been the length of his sentence.
Stanfield portrays O’Neal’s growing inner torment as he grew closer to Hampton, but also his panicky need for self-preservation at all costs, including deadly betrayal, whilst also showing his warped pride in his devious achievements. It’s a multilayered, gripping performance. Kaluuya perfectly captures Hampton’s youthful swagger, sensitivity and sense of social justice as he battles against insurmountable odds; Dominique Fishback also is superb as Hampton’s girlfriend, with poetry in her heart and Hampton’s child in her belly as the violence escalates.
Police kill insurrectors at Hoover’s behest, racism rife, until violence feels like it’s the only answer for the Panthers. There are gritty shootouts, but Judas And The Black Messiah is a psychological thriller and history lesson, which 2020 proves we still need to learn from. Biased narratives and misinformation play a major part in the depiction of the Panthers; Shaka King’s film addresses that through a gripping psychological thriller.
Out Fri 26 Feb
words KEIRON SELF