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Judas and the Black Messiah is an inspirational biopic filled about the
circumstances behind the killing of the black panther leader, Fred Hampton, who
was cold bloodedly shot by Chicago police in December 1969 while he was asleep next to his pregnant
girlfriend.
But the film is not strictly speaking a biopic of Hampton, it focuses on the
story of the man who was an FBI informant who betrayed Hampton and helped derail
that civil rights movement.
Politicians believed Hampton was a potential black messiah that could transcend
ethnic boundaries and unite various factions with beefs against the government
(he did manage to unite the Young Lords, the Young Patriots, Students for a More
Democratic Society, the Brown Beret , and even a pro confederate group).
William O’Neal is of course the Judas in the title who helped set up what was
essentially a political
execution.
Judas and the Black Messiah probably would have made my top 10 films of the 2020
list, but it was not released in theatres until February 2021, but it might be
included it on my list for this year.
It received six Oscar nominations and it won a best supporting actor award for
Daniel (Get Out) Kaluuya who played Hampton. It is indeed a stellar performance
and perhaps the most memorable part of the film. Do not get me wrong he deserved
to win the award, but it seems a bit unfair since he is onscreen as much as some
of the actors nominated for their lead performances.
The most controversial thing that Hampton does in the film is say, “Kill a few
pigs, get a little satisfaction,” at a public event. Later on, he brushes it off
saying he was using hyperbole, but not everyone might have been convinced or
could probably hear his explanation.
But when the informant wants to use explosives against the police, Hampton’s
response shows he is not blood thirsty as his enemies and the media sometimes
depicted him, and he strongly rejects the suggestion.
Towards the beginning, O’ Neal has an unusual way to make money. He uses a fake
police ID to “arrest” people, then when their guard is down, he steals their
cars. Although he is a two-bit hood, it is hard not the admire his courage and
ingenuity. However, things go awry, and he gets busted by some real cops. An FBI operative
named Mitchell (who is the only government official who comes off even remotely
sympathetic) offers him a deal. The only way that O’Neal can avoid doing hard
time is he has to help the FBI infiltrate the Chicago faction of the black
panther party which has been gaining in power and popularity. He agrees even
though he later comes to greatly regret the decision.
The FBI chief, Mitchell tries to ingratiate himself to O’Neal by his role in
apprehending some people that killed activists registering black voters in the
south during the desegregation era. He also shares a story of how the panthers
brutally tortured and killed a suspected police informant (they actually had the
wrong person) to argue that the panthers are as bad as the KKK.
His boss, J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen who looks monstrous under a ton of
makeup) is the most reprehensible character in the story. It is kind of ironic
that Sheen who is so well known for his championing of left-wing social causes
plays the extreme right winger who ordered Hampton’s murder.
In one scene he laughs at a sketch of Bobby Seale tied up and gagged in a court
room (this was depicted in the
Trial of the Chicago 7
), and in another he
displays his bigotry when he tries to justify his anti-panther campaign when he
asks Agent Mitchell, “What will you do when your daughter brings home a young,
negro male?””
Some have also criticized how the film weaves news clips within the
dramatization of Hampton’s life (Spike Lee often does this too). But seeing the
footage (Including an interview with O’Neil that was originally from Eyes on the
Prize 2) this definitely helped fill out the portrait of the man. In the clip,
O’Neal denigrated people who sat out during the revolution and called them
armchair revolutionaries. The film informs us that on the same day he did the
interview he committed suicide, so he was a probably a tragic figure plagued
with guilt.
The DVD includes a merely passable documentary, Fred Hampton for the People, in
which the actors basically say good things about Hampton, but it does not tell
us anything new we could not know from the film or any encyclopedia article. Why
couldn’t they have gotten an actual historian to talk about Hampton’s importance
or the facts behind the film? This was a missed opportunity, and it could have
helped young people (who often read very little) to learn more about an
important historical figure and era.
There are some minor things in the film that might mislead people about the
actual real history behind the film Both the actors who play O’Neal and Hampton
are far older than the characters they portray in the film. O’ Neal who was only
17 when he joined the panthers is played by a 29-year-old, and Hampton who was
21 when he died is portrayed by a 31-year-old. Also of course it is impossible
for the film writers to know the actual dialogue exchanges that occurred between
Mitchell and O’Neal, so this is all conjecture.
But one thing that irked me about the film is that while Chicago was integral in
the Hampton story, very little of this film was actually shot in the windy city.
It is deplorable that so many recent films that take place in Chicago (Trial of the Chicago 7 was also only partially shot here) do not make better use of the
city and its sites.
It was particularly pathetic that the overrated film,
Chicago
used no Chicago
actors in major roles, and it was mostly shot in Toronto (Maybe it should have
been called Toronto). In the film industry, the so-called second city, Chicago
is often treated as though it were the sixth or seventh city.
Despite these reservations, Judas and the Black Messiah is a superb, well
directed drama that includes a few of the best performances of 2020 (or is that
2021?), and it deserves majority of its ecstatic critical accolades.
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