Starring: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Topher Grace, Alec Baldwin, Ryan Eggold, Laura Harrier, Jasper Paakkonen, Robert John Burke, Paul Walter Hauser, Corey Hawkins, Michael Buscemi, Harry Belafonte
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Runtime: 135 mins. Reviewed in Aug 2018
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It has an understatement to say that Spike Lee is passionate about race issues in the United States. It is almost 30 years since his tough stand in Do The Right Thing. And, here he is, 30 years later, taking stands. In the meantime, he has made a great range of films, many documentaries, many dramas, even thrillers like Inside Man and Old Boy. But he continues to return to race issues. The tone is set the tone is set by a black-and-white filmed interview from the past, the dignified-looking white speaker being prompted as he is filmed, bigotry and bias pervading the speech. In fact, it is Alec Baldwin playing this speaker.
BlacKkKlansman won the Grand Jury Prize, 2018, in Cannes. It also won an Ecumenical Jury Commendation at Cannes.
A first hearing of the core plot element might indicate that this is an impossible story, an African- American man in the early 1970s infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan and even becoming the head of the local chapter in Colorado Springs. However, this is based on a book by the actual Ron Stallworth, the man behind the plan. What actually happened is that Ron talked to the Klan officials on the phone and his police partner, Jewish and white, taking the same name, did all the visits, attending the meetings. And, it worked, as an undercover police operation.
The two actors are convincing in their roles, even when they act acting. John David Washington is Ron Stallworth. In fact, in real life, he is the son of Denzel Washington and, as we listen to the dialogue in the film, they seem to have identical voices. Adam Driver is Flip Zimmerman, the partner, carrying off his impersonations and his Klan rantings with fabricated enthusiasm, but with growing intensity reflecting on his Jewish background which had had no impact during his growing up.
The film opens with a sequence from Gone with the Wind. There are also some excerpts from D.W.Griffiths classic Birth of a Nation, 1916, based on a novel called The Clansmen, sympathetic to the clan, presenting the slaves and free in stereotypical fashion. There is a sequence where the local members of the Klan watch the movie with catcalls and guffaws.
Ron is a man of his times, but the first black policeman on the Colorado Springs force, seen as something of a pioneer and supported by the authorities, ridiculed by a bigoted policeman in the force. He is sent to infiltrate a black gathering to hear Stokely Carmichael (with his changed name, Kwame Ture), with a microphone and getting information for the police. He meets the president of the Association, Patrice (Laura Harrier). They argue. He is more restrained as regards the issues though getting to enthuse about the cause, especially during the powerful and steering address.
The local to members, of course, are quite a redneck collection, bigoted and uneducated about race relationships, spouting the superior of the white race with their God-given destiny (and completely oblivious of Native Americans). Their meetings are haphazard, but they are eager to go into some kind of action which would now be branded as terrorist, that includes the willingness of the wife of the most bigoted to plant a bomb at Patrice’s house.
And, at the centre of the Klan, is the Grand Wizard of the period, David Duke (Tougher Grace), with suit and tie, political ambitions, external charm, but able to rouse the rabble – despite the Klan wanting to be known as The Organisation.
Spike Lee has a very effective sequence where the Klan having a lively meeting and it is intercut with a veteran recalling his life, the death of a friend, the contempt and humiliation experienced throughout his life – all the more persuasive because the speech is given by Harry Belafonte.
There are a lot of comic touches in this disguise caper, some narrow escapes, Ron being appointed by the police chief to be the security guard for David Duke in his visit to the town… Flip Zimmerman becoming head of the local chapter. And there is a sequence of burning crosses, caps and capes, a ritual of loyalty. But, there are serious moments, images of burning crosses, photos of atrocities, the tension when the woman goes to plant the bomb.
John David Washington is completely believable in the role, engaging as he plays some scenes for laughs. He is nicely counterbalanced by Adam Driver. For those wondering about the character of Jimmy, another police officer, it is not Steve Buscemi but his younger brother Michael.
At the end, the audience sits in rather stunned silence as Spike Lee powerfully incorporates sequences from riots and deaths in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. He shows actual sequences of David Duke speaking there – and, the sequence of Donald Trump as he talks about the good and bad people on both sides of the riots.
Passionate and partisan but tantalising and often very moving.
Peter Malone MSC is an Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.
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