Rating of
3/4
Trust Is a Two-Way Street... That Dead Ends
Chris Kavan - wrote on 03/25/21
Loyalty, trust, betrayal - all three play a major part in Judas and the Black Messiah and it goes all the way up the chain. Fred Hampton, played with both power and vulnerability by Daniel Kaluuya, is a rising star in the Black Panther movement, turning the Chicago chapter into one of the leading faces of the movement. To FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (a heavily transformed Martin Sheen), the Black Panther movement, with such socialist ideas like free education and health care, represents a bigger threat than communism. In order to bring down the new messiah, he needs a Judas - enter Bill O'Neal.
LaKeith Stanfield plays the turncoat - a young man who is picked up for impersonating an FBI agent so he can boost cars. Real FBI agent Roy Mitchell (a calm yet stone-cold Jesse Plemons) sees an opportunity. Using the conviction over his head, he convinces O'Neal to infiltrate the Chicago chapter and report back. He quickly rises to become chief of security. Even as Hampton is sent to prison on trumped-up charges (stealing ice cream, really?) - it isn't enough. Hoover wants Hampton out of the picture, permanently - and he leans on Mitchell who leans on O'Neal who eventually breaks as both the threat of a long prison term - or being turned in as a snitch - pushes him over the edge.
The film doesn't shy away from violence at all - this is a brutal, unflinching look into this time and place and the action is visceral. But the quiet moments are just as powerful - especially between Kaluuya and Dominique Fishback (who was also a standout in The Duece), who plays Hampton's girlfriend. Emotion is a big part of why this film works so well, whether it is intense or more personal. Director Shaka King has really made this biography stand out. Like all such Hollywood stories, there are exceptions - both Hampton and O'Neal were much younger in real life, though I can see why going with two powerhouse older actors was the preferred way to go. And the film obviously paints the Black Panthers in the best possible light - I'm sure it wasn't quite as rosy as it was portrayed.
In the end who is he real bad guy? O'Neal, the one who drugged Hampton and gave up the floor plan to his apartment? Mitchell, the agent who essentially blackmailed O'Neal into doing so? Hoover, who painted a bigger target on the Black Panthers than Communist nations? The Chicago Police and FBI, who fired 80 shots, killing Hampton (who was drugged and unarmed) and another Panther Mark Clark? The court system that imprisoned Hampton for little to no reason and later ruled his death justifiable homicide?
The truth is it's all of the above and the fact that so many people just went along with it is both terrifying and infuriating. Hampton may have been a revolutionary socialist, but he was instrumental to the Black Panther movement and the Rainbow Coalition that brought together several of the Chicago gangs to make promising social changes. What good could have came about had Hampton and the Panthers been allowed to thrive rather than been deemed a threat? As I survey the nation stage today, it saddens me to think that no matter how far we've come, it still seems like we haven't moved on at all.
