BlacKkKlansman – 4 out of 5
History education can be lacking in the United States. There are so many cool stories out there that just aren’t being covered. Take for example the tale behind BlacKkKlansman. This is a tale that needs to be told in every history class because it is awesome. Now, the film takes some liberties but biopics do that and I never expect them to be history lessons but the foundation to this story is undeniably wicked. That too is what this film is: Undeniably wicked!
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| Hey, it's Isiah Whitlock Jr.! Here's my obligatory "Sheeeit" comment. |
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| I didn't do my research but I really hoped the real Ron Stallworth put his arm around the real David Duke in a picture in order to troll him. |
In the early 70s, an ambitious young man named Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) becomes the first black officer at the Colorado Springs police department. While initially assigned to the records room, he quickly becomes an uncover officer and decides to get in touch with the Ku Klux Klan. Pretending to be white on the phone, he ends up initiating a meet up with the hate group. Enlisting the help of fellow officer Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), they arrange for Flip to be the man to meet with the organization face-to-face in an attempt to infiltrate and get information on the KKK while Stallworth is the man on the phone. The ruse goes as far as Ron speaking directly with the Grand Wizard himself; David Duke (Topher Grace). During the operation, Flip and Ron uncover a terrorist plot but one suspicious member of the Klan who doesn’t trust Flip might ruin everything.
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| "Hi, I need to speak with one of the stupid racists of the KKK. Wait, I'm sorry, I just described all of you." |
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| Wait, Ryan Eggold is playing a Klansman?!? After the tears I wasted on you when Tom Keen died on The Blacklist. |
With its outrageous story that was based on an actual event, BlacKkKlansman is already winning a ton of points and it only gets better from there. First off, the performances are top notch. John David Washington is great as Ron Stallworth and his chemistry with Adam Driver made for some very fun moments. Jasper Pääkkönen, who plays the Klansman that is suspicious of Flip, sometimes came off like a cartoonish villain on the verge of tying a woman to some train tracks while he twirls his moustache but, for the most part, was able to balance that line of being just over-the-top enough and actually come off like a legitimate threat. Okay, and now here’s the weird praise, I really liked Topher Grace in his portrayal of David Duke. Full disclosure, I like Grace. I think he’s a great actor and I wish I could see him in more things (also, please “leak” your edit of The Hobbit). With that being said, I think he found that sweet spot where he doesn’t make Duke at all sympathetic—which is a risk because Grace is a likeable guy—and was able to portray him as a buffoon and fit the tone of the film.
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| I feel uncomfortable saying that Grace was good in the film because he is playing a truly reprehensible real-life person but he was great in the film. |
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| Trump might not be racist but he's number one with racists. Wait, no, he's totally racist. Remember, David Duke openly supported him and Trump didn't blink an eye. |
That brings me to my next point: The film’s tone. Director Spike Lee is able to bring about a movie that has just the right amount of tension, drama, and humor. He is able to somehow present the Klan as the backwoods joke of an organization they are but, on the flipside, is able to showcase just how dangerous of a road their narrow-minded and backwards thinking can lead. There are times where it was easy to laugh at how absurd the KKK is and how Ron Stallworth is making a fool of them and there are times when there were genuinely terrifying. This all culminates in a very moving and emotional end sequence that shows the parallels of life in the 70s to our current society where we have a president saying there are fine people in the KKK (a president that was endorsed by David Duke, mind you) and where embolden white men who foolishly think they are somehow the new victims of society march and cry out that they won’t be replaced. The film ends with a memorial to Heather Heyer, the woman who was fatally hit by a car driven by a white supremacist at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, VA. This part really hit me and I was in tears. Yes, the film is funny and does a great job at mocking these psycho racists but Lee also reminds you that they are still here and we have one in the White House.
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| This is what the modern day Klan looks like. |
The only thing that held the film back is there are some pacing issues in the third act of the film. For the most part, the movie moves along incredibly smoothly and I was surprised at how rapid the film progresses without ever feeling like it is moving too fast. As the film got to the later parts of the second act and went into the third, this pacing got a little bumpy. It’s never bad enough that it ejected my attention from the film but it was noticeable enough that it started to feel like the movie was long, the complete opposite of the beginning of the film as it felt like it was short then.
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| "I robbed the Brawny Man on my way to work." |
BlacKkKlansman is an awesome story presented terrifically by a very talented director. It contains some fantastic performances and is filled with engaging drama, humorous moments and an emotional ending that carry with it weight and meaning. Overall, this might be one of the best and probably my favorite Spike Lee film I’ve seen to date.
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| When this image hit the screen, I lost it and cried a little...and then a whole lot. |
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