BlacKkKlansman | Film Review

Hey Guys x

Here's one for Awards Season. It's already been nominated for Golden Globes and BAFTAs, and on Tuesday it was announced that it has received quite a few Oscar nominations, including Director (Spike Lee), Supporting Actor (Adam Driver) and Best Picture.

This is the true story of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), the first black detective in the Colorado Springs PD, who decides to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), with the help of his white (albeit Jewish) colleague Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver). Together, they create a character that goes against everything they both believe in to bring down and expose one of the most extreme, hate-filled groups in 1970s America.

The film gets off to a slow start. You know exactly what the film is about, so you're kind of waiting for it to get to the main plot. Of course, this slow start is necessary in terms of setting up these characters, but there are parts that feel like they could have been shorter, and some shorter parts that could have been elongated.

It's extremely well written. It expertly combines '70s slang with harsh and uncomfortable language that gives younger generations an accurate taste of these situations. This is just one reason why the film is getting as much critical acclaim as it is - because it refuses to shy away from the harsh realities of racism, segregation and extremest hate.
In addition to this, making the character of Zimmerman Jewish (while he wasn't in real life) added such an interesting dynamic to the film. You see the effect of this extremest movement from two different points of view.

Something that struck me while watching it was that, throughout the middle of the film, I was waiting for something huge to happen, while for a long time, nothing did. To me, this shines a light on the fact that at this time, for most people, black, Jewish or otherwise, living next to a member of the Klan was just a reality. Nothing big was happening because it was a part of everyday life, and that was just how life was. The film did a great job of portraying that.

There is constant tension throughout the film as the audience worries that someone will find out the truth about this police investigation, which again highlights the constant tension that black people had while living in America (and this area specifically) at this time.

The most powerful scene in the movie is when there is a KKK meeting and a Black Panther meeting happening simultaneously. And this moment was made even more powerful at the end of the film when they showed footage of an extremest rally taking place in 2017. Seeing how recent that was, and the fact that a lot hasn't changed since the '70s for some people, makes the film extremely poignant.

Overall, see this film. I have no idea if it'll win awards, but to be honest the film is so important and stands by itself so well that it doesn't really matter if they win or not.

8/10

Lou