Thanks to THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 (2020), who lets the cat out of bag of Fred Hampton's fate, the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party is played by Kelvin Harrison Jr. and has a small presence in Aaron Sorkin's picture, a perpetual dread of inevitable violence hovering around Yours Truly's head while watching Shaka King's biopic of Hampton's ephemeral but impactful life.
But JUDAH AND THE BLACK MESSIAH is not merely about Hampton, suggested by its title, it is a dual play between Hampton (Kaluuya) and Bob O'Neal (Stanfield), an FBI informer infiltrates the BPP and plays a crucial role in the former's downfall. For general audience, truth or untruth has no distinction in the particulars, which could be dreamt up by screenwriters to hone the narrative tension (Bob's hot-wiring test under the gunpoint) or bolster characterization (a pathos-laden cameo from Alysia Joy Powell as the mother of a policeman-offing, deceased BPP member), only the veridical outcome matters, viz. the appalling reveal of collective immorality, sinister machination, and blatant cruelty residing in the “pigs”, the derogative term of the officers of the law, spearheaded by J. Edgar Hoover (an almost unrecognizable Martin Sheen under warpaint),which the BPP openly rebels against.
The film exudes the vibes of vigor, solemnity and righteousness exemplified by the recent African-American political cinema (like Ava DuVernay's SELMA 2014, for instance), racism is a dyed-in-the-wool precondition, and execrably unjust atrocities are ubiquitously subjected to the downtrodden and minorities. One might wonder, for those who are woke enough and repulsed to the core towards the congenital and systemically corrupted human barbarity, what is exactly the appeal here apart from broadening one's horizons? The quintessential preaching-to-the- choir dilemma.
That said, it is still an honorable enterprise to manage a thorough overview of a major event in the history of USA, and King's direction is robust, engaging and precise, sentimentality is his anathema. In the center, a bulked-up Kaluuya runs away with Hampton's sterling oratory and undimmed mettle, looks blithely invincible, it is a typical Oscar-bait role with exclamatory flair and stirring impact, the cynosure of the camera; meantime Stanfield sends O'Neal's Judas kiss haltingly and cravenly (but we didn't get the big letdown when he realizes BBP is not another Ku Klux Klan, which is a key point!), often soft-shoes in the periphery, “a badge is scarier than a gun” is his unbalanced mentality and one can well imagine if he could shout “get out!” to Kaluuya when the impending inevitability lurks around.
Plemons plays Roy Mitchell, O'Neal's FBI handler with a skin-deep bonhomie on top of a hardened callousness, and he is not even the worst kind among “the pigs”; Fishback, who plays Deborah Johnson, Hampton's girlfriend and the mother of his only heir, is another pleasing asset, for she injects much needed feminine sophistication and sensibility to a confrontational, blood-letting warfare, plus she is as gallant as anyone else, in one particular close-up in the climax, Fishback subtly telegraphs that she would die with him were it not for the sake of the baby she is carrying. As far as it concerns, JatBM is a bespoke prestige picture honoring a messiah's legacy, but there is a catch, not by a long shot we can be convinced that Kaluuya's Hampton is 21 and Stanfield's O'Neal is only 17!
referential entries: Andrew Dominik's THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (2007, 8.0/10); Ava DuVernay's SELMA (2014, 8.1/10); Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED (2006, 8.3/10).
Title: Judas and the Black Messiah
Year: 2021
Country: USA
Language: English
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Director: Shaka King
Writers: Will Berson, Shaka King, Kenneth Lucas, Keith Lucas
Music: Craig Harris, Mark Isham
Cinematography: Sean Bobbitt
Editing: Kristan Sprague
Cast:
Daniel Kaluuya
LaKeith Stanfield
Jesse Plemons
Dominique Fishback
Darrell Britt-Gibson
Dominique Thorne
Algee Smith
Martin Sheen
Ashton Sanders
Khris Davis
Ian Duff
Lil Rel Howery
Amber Chardae Robinson
Terayle Hill
Robert Longstreet
Alysia Joy Powell
Nick Fink
Crystal Lee Brown
Jermaine Fowler
Rating: 7.7/10
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