Blackklansman * * *
This film took me by surprise. I was expecting a more serious tone. It's insight into the KKK is about as revealing as The Blues Brothers expose on Neo Nazis. In the main they're shown as being just half a dozen comically stupid characters.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. These are indeed people that can be rightly held up for contempt and mockery. I'm just surprised, especially as this is based on a true story. In the main, Director Spike Lee has played it for laughs and relatively light entertainment, and on that level it works. The characters are very funny, the dialogue is sharp, the action often similar to a caper comedy. But at the same time, I'd have thought that Spike Lee might want to take this opportunity to show how seriously dangerous the KKK can be.
You get the impression that in the seventies being a cop was an unusual choice for a young black man, yet changes were happening in the Colorado Springs Police Force and they were smart enough to realise that Ron Stallworth was just the kind of recruit they needed. So when he applied he was welcomed in.
It didn't take Stallworth long to show his ambition, Soon he is working undercover where he meets Flip (great name!) Zimmerman who is as Jewish as Stallworth is black. To test his loyalty the first job they give Stallworth as an undercover cop is to infiltrate a black power meeting where Civil Rights Leader Kwame Ture is speaking.
Darnedest thing though, the young man made perfect sense, (albeit by lifting slabs of dialogue from speeches by Malcolm X and Luther King). It's at the same meeting that Stallworth meets Patrice who becomes the love interest of the story.
On seeing a KKK recruitment ad in the paper, Stallworth gives them a call to find out more and to learn just how hard it might be to get involved with the KKK. He is quickly invited to the next meeting, but he figures as a black guy that might not be such a good idea, so Flip Zimmerman takes his place Adam Driver doing another great turn. (He must be one of the most versatile actors working in film today).
The infiltration deepens until the "Grand Wizard" of the KKK comes to Colarado to give a rousing speech. At the same time the KKK decide bombing the black militants might be fun.
As the day of action unfolds and we see the efforts of the KKK bomber to place the bomb device at the home of Patrice we are given a strange juxtaposition of Harry Belafonte as a grand old man of Civil Rights speaking to his "children" (young black militants) who sit at his knee listening in awe as he narrates the awful and unjust hanging of innocent blacks years go. It's an interesting, strange but (for me) unsuccessful juxtaposition.
The film later concludes using news footage from modem day events of the rise of "White Power" and the The Tea Party and recent crimes committed in their names, which is a rather last minute reminder of the importance of its subject matter, but it left me thinking something else - Spike had just had over two hours to drive home his message but now he turns tv footage from some modern day events to do it for him!
Blackklansman is a good film, and a very entertaining film, but its not as impactful or important as it could or should be.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. These are indeed people that can be rightly held up for contempt and mockery. I'm just surprised, especially as this is based on a true story. In the main, Director Spike Lee has played it for laughs and relatively light entertainment, and on that level it works. The characters are very funny, the dialogue is sharp, the action often similar to a caper comedy. But at the same time, I'd have thought that Spike Lee might want to take this opportunity to show how seriously dangerous the KKK can be.
You get the impression that in the seventies being a cop was an unusual choice for a young black man, yet changes were happening in the Colorado Springs Police Force and they were smart enough to realise that Ron Stallworth was just the kind of recruit they needed. So when he applied he was welcomed in.
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| Ron and Flip with their KKK membership card |
Darnedest thing though, the young man made perfect sense, (albeit by lifting slabs of dialogue from speeches by Malcolm X and Luther King). It's at the same meeting that Stallworth meets Patrice who becomes the love interest of the story.
On seeing a KKK recruitment ad in the paper, Stallworth gives them a call to find out more and to learn just how hard it might be to get involved with the KKK. He is quickly invited to the next meeting, but he figures as a black guy that might not be such a good idea, so Flip Zimmerman takes his place Adam Driver doing another great turn. (He must be one of the most versatile actors working in film today).
The infiltration deepens until the "Grand Wizard" of the KKK comes to Colarado to give a rousing speech. At the same time the KKK decide bombing the black militants might be fun.
As the day of action unfolds and we see the efforts of the KKK bomber to place the bomb device at the home of Patrice we are given a strange juxtaposition of Harry Belafonte as a grand old man of Civil Rights speaking to his "children" (young black militants) who sit at his knee listening in awe as he narrates the awful and unjust hanging of innocent blacks years go. It's an interesting, strange but (for me) unsuccessful juxtaposition.
The film later concludes using news footage from modem day events of the rise of "White Power" and the The Tea Party and recent crimes committed in their names, which is a rather last minute reminder of the importance of its subject matter, but it left me thinking something else - Spike had just had over two hours to drive home his message but now he turns tv footage from some modern day events to do it for him!
Blackklansman is a good film, and a very entertaining film, but its not as impactful or important as it could or should be.
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