BlacKkKlansman movie review by Gordon Stamper, Jr.
Some films are essential viewing for adult audiences that appreciate great cinema and essential moments in history and culture. Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman is such a film.
The movie's main plot is set in the 1970's, and generally based on the true life experiences of Ron Stallworth (played by John David Washington), a Colorado Springs police detective and the first African American on the force. He begins a phone dialogue with the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. Needing a white face to meet with the members, Stallworth recruits fellow detective Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), a non-practicing Jew, for the job. This dual undercover project reaps big rewards, including phone conversations and live meetings with the National Grand Wizard himself, David Duke (Topher Grace). Tension builds as a militaristic plot to bomb a Black Student Union rally begins to unfold.
It's rare when a film is so on target for its time that it's almost too on-the-nose. Lee's work here flirts with that problem, but generally skirts it with effective historical parallels, since we are still dealing with David Duke and his kind in our America, and current Presidential policy often is too accommodating to a white supremacist agenda.
BlacKkKlansman uses a framing device of history, including a white supremacist propagandist (Alec Baldwin) filming his toxic views for an old news reel, and an African American discussing his eyewitness accounts of lynching and torture in the South (Harry Belafonte). Each are fictionalized characters, but speak truth in terms of the events and attitudes. A real life figure also provides a key moment in the film, Kwame Ture aka Stokely Carmichael (eloquently portrayed by Corey Hawkins), an early undercover assignment for Stallworth that resulted in a brief real-life meeting with the civil rights activist. A very disturbing present-day coda ends the film, with some never-before-seen footage of the Charlottesville tragedy.
Overall, the level of acting is excellent, including Washington, Driver, and Laura Harrier, as a fictitious Black Student Union president and love interest that consolidates key portions of the story. Lee's artistry as director is present with his stylistic flourishes, from the glowing faces of listeners at Ture's rally to the montage of hate-enraged faces cheering on klansmen in Birth of a Nation after an initiation ceremony. Lee regular Terence Blanchard adds a moving musical score that adds emotion without becoming maudlin.
The latest Spike Lee Joint has artistic heft and the weight of consequence, somehow balanced with entertainment value. It may be the most important film to see since the Oscar-winning Spotlight, and people of conscience should not miss it.
My rating: **** out of ****.
Focus Pictures presents BlacKkKlansman. Rated "R" for profanity, racist language, and violence. Directed by Spike Lee. Written by Lee and Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz & Kevin Willmott, based on the book by Ron Stallworth. Music by Terence Blanchard. Starring John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Michael Buscemi, Ryan Eggold, Corey Hawkins, and Topher Grace. Playing in Porter County (IN) at Portage IMAX 16.
