BlacKkKlansman is a biopic that tells the remarkable story of Ron
Stallworth, the first African-American police officer and detective in the
Colorado Springs Police Department, who somehow successfully managed to
infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s.
His unbelievable exploit was kept under wraps for a long, long time. It was only in 2006 where he finally
disclosed the specifics in an interview.
In 2014, he published a memoir titled Black Klansman, which served as the source material of this film.
The plot follows Stallworth
(played by John David Washington, the son of Denzel Washington) as he deals
with the struggles of being a black police officer in the 70s and the
challenges of going undercover within the KKK.
Through just the telephone, he manages to convince key members of the
Klan – even its Grad Wizard himself, David Duke (Topher Grace) – that Ron
Stallworth (he made the mistake of giving his real name) is a negro-hating
white man like them, and win their trust.
However, when he’s required to meet the Klansmen face to face, his partner
Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) assumes his identity and goes on his stead. However, the thing is, Zimmerman is actually a
Jew, and thus, not only is it critical that he perfectly keeps the façade that
he’s “Ron Stallworth”, but he also needs to make sure that he doesn’t give away
the fact that he’s Jewish.
Prior to watching BlacKkKlansman, I had already read about
Stallworth. But there were many crazy details
in this film that were new to me. Either
I had forgotten about them or they were – which is very much likely – creative
liberties. Regardless, as far as the
cinematic narrative is concerned, it’s generally compelling. And surprisingly hilarious. It treats its themes with the seriousness
they deserrve, but with the more ridiculous aspects of the story – especially
the aspects relating to how the Klan managed to get fooled – it utterly stresses
on the ridiculousness that comedy gold is created.
It’s also unsurprisingly
political. For most of the movie, despite
Spike Lee’s obvious leanings to the Left, it avoids being obnoxious about its
messages, but be actually sensible and agreeable at most parts. The only thing that really didn’t seat well
with me at that point is that the movie somewhat painted the Black Panthers as
a loud but non-violent activist movement (it wasn’t), and that their calls for
violence were nothing worse than rhetorical (they weren’t).
But then BlacKkKlansman ends by making a connection to last year’s notorious
Charlottesville rally. It shows clips of
present-day David Duke as well as Donald Trump’s controversial speech after the
events (which was something that definitely should have been worded more
carefully, but nevertheless was unfairly taken out of context by many in the mainstream media
to frame the idea that Trump sympathizes with white supremacists or is one
himself). It’s just a very small part of
the whole movie, but ending it in such a manner diminished the quality of the
movie quite a bit, for not only does it feel forced and disjointed from the rest of the movie, but it made itself depreciate into just another liberal effort
to label Trump a racist. In addition, it
felt like a cop-out since it didn’t really give the central story a fitting resolution.
In the end, its ending
notwithstanding, I still like BlacKkKlansman. It’s a
fairly thoughtful, absorbing, and well-crafted film. And if there’s one thing that I can strongly agree
with among all the things it had to say, it’s this: racism deserves to be scorned, yes, but it also deserves to be mocked.
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