“Judas and the Black Messiah” Movie Review by Josh Davis : Pop Culture Leftovers

“Judas and the Black Messiah” Movie Review by Josh Davis

March 8, 2021 12:52 pm |

“Judas and the Black Messiah” is an important new film from writer/director Shaka King – important because it’s a fine bit of filmmaking, and also because it will surely introduce more people to the story of Fred Hampton.

Hampton, like far too many people of color in the United States, was taken too early, at just 21. Prior to his death in 1969, he was chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and Deputy Chairman of the national Black Panthers. He was a powerful activist of socialist causes and a voice for young African Americans. And so, of course, the FBI targeted and then and viciously murdered him in a raid in which federal agents reportedly fired as many as 99 shots, and members of the Black Panthers fired just one.

King brings this story to life in bold, brutal strokes, focusing the lens on Bill O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield, “Atlanta,” “Sorry to Bother You”), a young car thief who posed as an FBI agent and, rather than face prison, became an FBI informant used to infiltrate the Black Panthers in Chicago.

Jesse Plemons (“Fargo,” “The Irishman”) plays Roy Mitchell, the FBI agent who coerces O’Neal into spying on the Panthers from within. It’s a gross situation that becomes more twisted and despicable as the film goes on.

Daniel Kaluuya (“Get Out,” “Black Panther”) stars as Fred Hampton during the last year of his young life, when he’s busy stirring up crowds of young black people in Chicago, touting the benefits of revolution through socialism. He also helps to form coalitions between the Panthers and people of all races in Chicago, backs vital causes like education and health care, and helps to reduce gang violence.

At one rally, Hampton meets Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback, “The Deuce,” “The Hate U Give”), a fellow idealist who later becomes his fiancé and, after Hampton’s death, helps carry the torch of his ideas with their son.

At another rally, O’Neal approaches the Panthers and is soon able to infiltrate Hampton’s inner circle, eventually becoming part of his security detail.

The film showcases Hampton as a gifted orator and a powerful leader during a time shortly after the assassinations of prominent figures like Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcom X. The Panthers are understandably paranoid and often heavily armed, but the real brutality in the film comes from the shady dealings of O’Neal and the FBI.

Hampton, for sure, is a radical who wants to pursue and carryout his radical ideas, but those radical ideas are largely focused on racial and economic equality. And his urgency mostly comes from the fact that he and those around him are fed up after years – actually centuries – of oppression.

Kaluuya is utterly captivating as Hampton, at times becoming completely lost in the role. Stanfield is also fantastic, as a lout who’s walking a dangerous tightrope, at times appearing to become enraptured in the movement, and others violently being reminded that he’s practically owned by the FBI.

Fishback shines in a slightly smaller role, going toe to toe with Kaluuya and always holding her own, and Plemons is both menacing and slimy, perfectly cast for his part.

The only bizarre bit of casting is Martin Sheen (“Apocalypse Now,” “The Departed”), shown sparingly and in strange costume makeup as J. Edgar Hoover.

King, in just his second feature film as a writer/director, pulls together a fantastically acted film about a young revolutionary that’s partly a biopic, and partly an indictment of the corruption of the American government during the 1960s, and especially of Hoover’s FBI.

Whether or not the FBI was involved in the murders of Martin, Malcom and others, they were absolutely behind Hampton’s murder. When the movie ends and the final crawl shows details and clips of the real-life people behind the story, it’s all the more heartbreaking. And it’s all too familiar.

“Judas and the Black Messiah,” whether 100% true or not, is true enough and is a film that needs to be seen. It’s a reminder of what terrible things happened in recent American history, and a gut-punch reality check that many of those injustices continue to this day.

PCL Rating: Tupperware

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: FRESH