BlacKkKlansman Review (Updated)
By: Nik S
Spike Lee movies, like Do the Right Thing or Malcolm X, help to proclaim an issue with racism happening in current events. His characters are always two sides of the same coin, showing both extremes with his hero standing their ground in the middle to ease tension. BlacKkKlansman, Lee's most recent film, is based on true events when an African American police officer infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan.
Most people speculated that Lee was inspired by Dave Chappelle's 2003 skit about an African American Klansman. The film actually uses a memoir of a similar name, Black Klansman, to center its plot around. While the movie takes place in the early 1970s, the actual events took place later that decade. In 1974 Ron Stallworth after his 21st birthday he was sworn into the Colorado Springs police department after graduating from the Police Cadet Program. He was fascinated by the undercover narcotics investigators and spent his first few years trying to present himself worthy of their title. He got his wish and his first undercover job was to attend a speech given by a leader of the Black Panthers, Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture).
A few months later Stallworth became the first black undercover narcotics in Colorado Springs Police Department. While scanning a newspaper in 1978 he noticed an ad for a local Ku Klux Klan chapter, which just listed a P.O. box. He signed the letter with his real name, an untraceable number, and address. He talked to a local organizer over the phone two weeks later, rather than receiving a pamphlet like he thought he would, and had to spout racist propaganda to make it believable he wanted into the Klan. He recruited a man named Chuck to play as his white counterpart whenever the Klan wanted to meet with him. Stallworth was eventually able to get in contact with David Duke, the grand wizard, and fooled him into a false friendship over the phone. The investigation was shut down after the organizer was stepping down and wanted Chuck (as Stallworth) to succeed him.
The movie follows a young Ron Stallworth (Washington) who became Colorado Springs' first African-American police officer. Due to his luck of being the only black officer, he's needed to get information from a "Black Power" rally. He's able to keep his position as an undercover officer and decides to hunt for a new case. He finds a classified ad for a local Klan recruitment with a phone number and decides to give it a call. Turns out they want to meet him, but since he's black he figures it's not a good idea; so he gets his fellow officer Phillip "Flip" Zimmerman (Driver), a man with Jewish heritage, to take on the persona of Ron and infiltrate meetings to gather information. After some time Ron gets in touch with David Duke (Grace), which pushes their investigation forward. Through the time they spend infiltrating the Klan, they slowly learn that part of the chapter is up to something malicious, and they have to discover what it is before it's too late.
Spike Lee's directing style always shows his inspirations on his sleeves. Since the movie opens with a shot from Gone with the Wind and shows clips of The Birth of a Nation there are a few tricks Lee slipped in from both films. Using Cuckor and Fleming's (the directors of Gone with the Wind) style to help him resonate emotions from how characters talk to each other. Each conversation between characters feel genuine and unique, and never once feels dull. Lee also borrows their use of angle shots on characters: low-angle shots to show powerlessness, and high-angle shots to show power or unease. From The Birth of a Nation, he borrows crosscutting, or parallel editing, a technique where it alternates between two scenes. This is used when there's a meeting of African American students listening to a speech, and it switches between that and the Klan recruiting new members and hollering at The Birth of a Nation.
Lee, not being the one to pull punches, goes full force on poking fun at what's happening currently in our society. There's a conversation between Ron and his Sargent where they discuss Duke's slow rise to power in politics. Ron happens to say, almost tongue and cheek-like, "America would never elect somebody like David Duke president." Just to add onto that line, the ending just drops a bomb on the audience, especially since the movie feels like it's about to end with 'Ron just beat the Klan, racism is certainly defeated today.' Lee probably noticed this and decided it would be perfect to leave a message that while Ron did do something impactful, it wasn't enough. Just explaining the last few minutes of the movie does not do it justice, it's something one has to experience for themselves.
It has a little something for everyone: comedy, action, drama, and thrills. There is never a dull moment throughout the entire movie, and even regular conversations between characters feel enjoyable. I can only imagine that there is going to be some kind of backfire effect with some viewers, especially with the ending. You sit there feeling almost weak and helpless at our current situation in America, but at the same time urged to do something. So if there's any movie you see this year, it needs to be BlacKkKlansman.
Director: Spike Lee
Producers: Jason Blum, Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Sean McKittrick, Raymond Mansfield
Starring: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Topher Grace, Michael Buscemi, Alec Baldwin
Production Companies: 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, Blumhouse Productions, QC Entertainment
Distributors: Focus Features (USA), UIP and UPI (Argentina, Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands)
Spike Lee movies, like Do the Right Thing or Malcolm X, help to proclaim an issue with racism happening in current events. His characters are always two sides of the same coin, showing both extremes with his hero standing their ground in the middle to ease tension. BlacKkKlansman, Lee's most recent film, is based on true events when an African American police officer infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan.
Most people speculated that Lee was inspired by Dave Chappelle's 2003 skit about an African American Klansman. The film actually uses a memoir of a similar name, Black Klansman, to center its plot around. While the movie takes place in the early 1970s, the actual events took place later that decade. In 1974 Ron Stallworth after his 21st birthday he was sworn into the Colorado Springs police department after graduating from the Police Cadet Program. He was fascinated by the undercover narcotics investigators and spent his first few years trying to present himself worthy of their title. He got his wish and his first undercover job was to attend a speech given by a leader of the Black Panthers, Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture).
A few months later Stallworth became the first black undercover narcotics in Colorado Springs Police Department. While scanning a newspaper in 1978 he noticed an ad for a local Ku Klux Klan chapter, which just listed a P.O. box. He signed the letter with his real name, an untraceable number, and address. He talked to a local organizer over the phone two weeks later, rather than receiving a pamphlet like he thought he would, and had to spout racist propaganda to make it believable he wanted into the Klan. He recruited a man named Chuck to play as his white counterpart whenever the Klan wanted to meet with him. Stallworth was eventually able to get in contact with David Duke, the grand wizard, and fooled him into a false friendship over the phone. The investigation was shut down after the organizer was stepping down and wanted Chuck (as Stallworth) to succeed him.
The movie follows a young Ron Stallworth (Washington) who became Colorado Springs' first African-American police officer. Due to his luck of being the only black officer, he's needed to get information from a "Black Power" rally. He's able to keep his position as an undercover officer and decides to hunt for a new case. He finds a classified ad for a local Klan recruitment with a phone number and decides to give it a call. Turns out they want to meet him, but since he's black he figures it's not a good idea; so he gets his fellow officer Phillip "Flip" Zimmerman (Driver), a man with Jewish heritage, to take on the persona of Ron and infiltrate meetings to gather information. After some time Ron gets in touch with David Duke (Grace), which pushes their investigation forward. Through the time they spend infiltrating the Klan, they slowly learn that part of the chapter is up to something malicious, and they have to discover what it is before it's too late.
Spike Lee's directing style always shows his inspirations on his sleeves. Since the movie opens with a shot from Gone with the Wind and shows clips of The Birth of a Nation there are a few tricks Lee slipped in from both films. Using Cuckor and Fleming's (the directors of Gone with the Wind) style to help him resonate emotions from how characters talk to each other. Each conversation between characters feel genuine and unique, and never once feels dull. Lee also borrows their use of angle shots on characters: low-angle shots to show powerlessness, and high-angle shots to show power or unease. From The Birth of a Nation, he borrows crosscutting, or parallel editing, a technique where it alternates between two scenes. This is used when there's a meeting of African American students listening to a speech, and it switches between that and the Klan recruiting new members and hollering at The Birth of a Nation.
Lee, not being the one to pull punches, goes full force on poking fun at what's happening currently in our society. There's a conversation between Ron and his Sargent where they discuss Duke's slow rise to power in politics. Ron happens to say, almost tongue and cheek-like, "America would never elect somebody like David Duke president." Just to add onto that line, the ending just drops a bomb on the audience, especially since the movie feels like it's about to end with 'Ron just beat the Klan, racism is certainly defeated today.' Lee probably noticed this and decided it would be perfect to leave a message that while Ron did do something impactful, it wasn't enough. Just explaining the last few minutes of the movie does not do it justice, it's something one has to experience for themselves.
It has a little something for everyone: comedy, action, drama, and thrills. There is never a dull moment throughout the entire movie, and even regular conversations between characters feel enjoyable. I can only imagine that there is going to be some kind of backfire effect with some viewers, especially with the ending. You sit there feeling almost weak and helpless at our current situation in America, but at the same time urged to do something. So if there's any movie you see this year, it needs to be BlacKkKlansman.
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