Judas And The Black Messiah

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Judas And The Black Messiah is a biopic about the rise of Fred Hampton, chairman for the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther movement, and the man sent by the FBI to betray him. This film begins with a lot of found footage, which actually has a serious level of impact in terms of the film and what it represents going forward. In one of the interviews a man states "these ain't riots, this is a revolution"; a powerful moment because it is framed alongside black protestors being harassed and harmed by police officers from that era. In this way the film very deliberately draws a clean parallel to many of the civil rights struggles going on today, more than this it highlights the frustration that black people still have to fight for justice and freedom. I also have really struggled to understand the Black Panther party all my life, stories around the NAACP or other civil rights groups often getting highlighted or made into film. I really valued how precisely this film manages to show all aspects of the Black Panther party, you see the value of action they brought to their community and a complete breakdown of the values that their party stood behind. This film had a focal point around infiltration and espionage and it managed to instil a sense of tension quite well because of this. The editing throughout sets a fine pace in contrast to the narrative pacing, each cut feels perfectly timed and spaced throughout most of the feature. The score for the film has this intense, discordant jazz/blues sound to it which heightened those tense scenes where everything was spiralling out of control; yet there was also a melancholy to it that paid tribute to the unity and history of the era.

 

LaKeith Stanfield, who played Bill O'Neal, takes his time to find his feet but once you get to see the really frantic nature of his character in the second half it is clear what Stanfield has accomplished; this character is duplicitous but more than that he is grounded in extreme fear and cowardice. Jesse Plemons, who played Roy Mitchell, is quite a charismatic figure with something rotten in him below the surface; this is a figure of authority who blows apart the livelihood of a group of people with little remorse and in a calculated manner. Dominique Thorne, who played Judy Harmon, feels like everything a Black Panther fighter was supposed to represent; Thorne portrays what it's like being a female fighter equal amongst her fellow members of the movement exceptionally well. Martin Sheen, who played J. Edgar Hoover, is a complete reprobate of an antagonist which is everything the film needs; Sheen portrays a figure who wields power for prejudice with a cruelty that is undeniably terrifying to watch.

However, the best performance came from Daniel Kaluuya, who played Fred Hampton. Almost from the start of this film it is clear that this is going to be one of Kaluuya's strongest performances to date. The moment he stands upon a stage and delivers his first passionate monologue inciting revolution and unity in the face of prejudice you realise the strength of this role. Fred Hampton throughout has this charisma that feels both natural and earned, he connects to everyone he meets and more than that, he inspires. I like that Kaluuya has a subtle development around his character of initially being quite headstrong and quick to act, but he becomes more considering and wise as the film progresses and fatherhood looms for him. There is no question that Hampton is a fighter, but he builds an image of strength to help convince others to join the fight for education, healthcare and justice for those who need and deserve it. This is an inspired, revolutionary role and the best performance I've seen from Kaluuya since Get Out.

 

The structure of this film is set to be slow and, at times, downright sluggish. Judas And The Black Messiah contains a number of very important messages throughout but there isn't going to be much shock factor for anyone here. O'Neal's eventual betrayal of Hampton is an event fixed from the opening scene and so the slow, gradual examination of the two characters across two hours towards that singular event is a very drawn out process. For a long portion of the film Hampton is in prison, so we lose the most interesting role for a lot of the runtime. This hurts the second act because we're left with a lot of the supporting cast who haven't had much of a strong presence up until this point anyway, and don't really serve to strengthen the plot much at all. A large problem with biopics, particularly those centred around civil rights movements, is that they follow a formula of stretching out the first and second act so you get a complete breakdown of your protagonist(s). Then when you reach the final act they pour everything they have into one big stakes 'big scene' that the whole film has been centred around; which for this film is the police storming the Black Panther chapter resulting in Hampton's demise. I think it's hard to make a biopic not confined to similar elements these days but a film loses its power when it struggles to find a unique way to present itself. The cinematography throughout the feature has a poor approach to switching from being in motion to remaining static, there are also several scenes which are framed poorly or in quite simply blocky ways.

Dominique Fishback, who played Deborah Johnson, has little to no chemistry with Kaluuya and the pair feel poorly paired together; Fishback also doesn't have the same presence as some of the other Black Panther members in the film so the strength of this role is lost from that.

A slow burn biopic that never really manages to tread new ground but projects several messages well worth listening to. I would give Judas And The Black Messiah a 6/10.