KING CAPTURES THE MOMENT

BLACK PANTHERS DUG IN BEYOND THE POINT OF FEEDING CHILDREN

By PETER THOAMS BUSCH

The dark days of the black civil rights movement are still relevant in contemporary campaigns for black justice in America.

Director Shaka King explores the past but makes the script relevant in Judas and the Black Messiah (2021). King shows what happens in the Inner City when peaceful demonstrations end with violence and violence begets violence.

King follows the short life of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton and his use of the Illinois Chapter to unite black people against the white racist police force in Chicago.

Daniel Kaluuya is cast as Hampton.

Lakeith Stanfield plays FBI informant William O’Neal who infiltrates the Black Panthers to avoid prison time for impersonating an FBI agent during a carjacking in 1969.

Jesse Piemons plays the FBI agent intent on making a career on the information fed to him by O’Neal.

Piemons has been on a bit of a career roll having been cast in character parts in The Irishman (2019), Vice (2018), The Post (2017), Bridge of Spies (2015) and Black Mass (2015).

King also casts Dominque Fishback, Ashton Sanders, Darrel Britt-Gibson, Lil Rel Howery, Algee Smith, Dominque Thorne and Martin Sheen for an ensemble cast.

Sheen wears a facial prosthetic to become FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. 

Stanfield shows how ‘Judas’ is just a sniveling peon with a criminal mind so weak that he is able to put on several masks so as to deceive the Black Panther party into trusting him. Stanfield shows O’Neal bubbling with the deception of an FBI informant inside the civil rights movement.

O’Neal exploits the cruel duality of the street by enjoying the rewards of working for the FBI while at the same time being terrified of the possibility of his identity being revealed. O’Neal is told that the Black Panthers are as bad as the Klu Klux Klan.

Kaluuya does a mirror perfect performance as Hampton, with a charismatic screen presence and strong oratory to maintain his leadership in the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panthers at the age of 21.

Kaluuya shows that Hampton was not just a street thug, but an Inner City leader helping the men, women and children suffering in poverty and oppression in one of America’s richest cities.

Kaluuya and Stanfield deserved the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominations in the same category for best supporting actor, with Kaluuya taking home the Oscar.

The 126 minute runtime goes by fast with a didactic script that barely wastes a word, and an original score layered over top of the excellent acting provided by the ensemble cast. Mark Isham and Craig Harris provide the original score.

The film also took home the best original song Oscar, ‘Fight for You’, by H.E.R., D’Mile and Tiara Thomas.

Cinematographer Sean Bobbitt has some strokes of genius particularly when Kaluuya is shown in silhouette, but many scenes miss the high standard expected of best picture nominees with several attempts to use natural lighting for a documentary realism effect that washes out at times.

King works the camera to create a lot of motion for compelling the narrative along an emotionally linear story line. Intimate scenes are shot with three dimensional depth by changing the near focus of the camera from a character in the foreground to a character in the background. King then uses transitions to a parallel narrative, as well as a dream sequence, to signal that the plot is going through a reversal.

King has the audience’s attention early on, though. And then the director develops empathy for the Black Panthers by showing their charitable endeavors in contrast with the arbitrary abuse of power by the FBI and the Chicago Police.

King does well with the $26 million production budget, but the $24.99 early release rental fee seemed a bit of a hype. Apple TV in Canada did not drop the rental fee to $6.99 until a few weeks after the Oscar party.

The script is thoughtful and inspiring, with a focus on one person and one event in time that allows for important details about the characters and their storyline to be revealed on screen.

But while the struggle of an oppressed group fighting for a righteous cause is worthy of every one’s singular attention, the film lacks a more dominant narrative device and overall vision.