CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK
‘Judas’ Is the Latest Political Movie to Punt on Politics
Both “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “BlacKkKlansman” are rooted in
issues of radicalism vs. the system, but the dramas rely on morally
opaque characters that undermine the stories.
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Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) onstage, and Bill O’Neal (Lakeith
Stanfield), an F.B.I. informant, in beret. Was O’Neal actually a
supporter of the Black Panthers?
Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) onstage, and Bill O’Neal (Lakeith
Stanfield), an F.B.I. informant, in beret. Was O’Neal actually a
supporter of the Black Panthers? Credit...Glen Wilson/Warner Bros
ByMaya Phillips <https://www.nytimes.com/by/maya-phillips>
* NYT, March 5, 2021,10:00 a.m. ET
At the beginning of the fact-based drama “Judas and the Black Messiah
<https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/movies/judas-and-the-black-messiah-review.html>,”
an F.B.I. informant named Bill O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield), wearing a
slate gray suit and matching tie, sits in front of a camera. He’s being
interviewed for the documentary series “Eyes on the Prize II,” and an
unseen questioner asks, “Looking back on your activities in the late
’60s, early ’70s, what would you tell your son about what you did then?”
What he did then was abet the police killing of the Black Panther leader
Fred Hampton. O’Neal’s expression is guarded; his eyes flit to the right
and his lips part ever so slightly, but no words come out.
The film thus begins with an open question: How does O’Neal account for
his actions?
It’s a question the movie examines but doesn’t actually answer; “Judas”
does not even give an indication that it has its own take. Despite the
great performances and otherwise entrancing narrative, there’s a flaw in
the storytelling: The moral opacity of the character of O’Neal fails to
give us any true sense of the personal stakes involved and hinders the
film’s ability to connect to current politics. In this way, “Judas”
recalls another recent biographical drama about an undercover agent that
punts on politics: Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/movies/blackkklansman-review-spike-lee.html>,”
from 2018.
In that film, a Black detective named Ron Stallworth (John David
Washington) teams up with a white Jewish officer (Adam Driver) to
infiltrate a local Ku Klux Klan chapter in 1970s Colorado. When Ron goes
undercover at a Black Panthers rally, he gets involved with a student
there named Patrice, who eventually discovers, to her disgust, that he’s
a police officer. “Ron Stallworth, are you for the revolution and the
liberation of Black people?” Patrice asks, but Ron deflects, saying,
“I’m an undercover detective with the Colorado Springs police. That’s my
j-o-b, that’s the truth.”
ImageAs an undercover police officer, John David Washington, right,
with Adam Driver, deflects questions about his beliefs.
As an undercover police officer, John David Washington, right, with
Adam Driver, deflects questions about his beliefs. Credit...David
Lee/Focus Features, via Associated Press
But that’s not just a deflection on Ron’s part; it’s a deflection by the
film as well. Though Ron insists that he nevertheless cares about the
Black community, Patrice has a point. As a Black police officer, how
complicit is he with the system? His politics aren’t spelled out, and
Washington’s acting is too wooden to reveal what Ron thinks of the
radical Panthers.
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At the rally he watches intently, but it’s unclear whether his gaze
reflects his attraction to Patrice, a real interest in the politics or a
shallow admiration for the pageantry of the proceedings, the flair of
the rhetoric and the energy of the participants. There’s a sense that
both Ron and the film see the Panthers and the Klan as comparable
political extremes, just positioned at opposite ends of the spectrum,
and that neither is righteous or effective — though the film shies away
from conveying this with more confidence and clarity.
As a director known for taking risks, Spike Lee is surprisingly moderate
when it comes to this film’s politics, never allowing his protagonist to
cross over to the side of the revolution. In an effort to remain
faithful to the conventional cop-film genre, “BlacKkKlansman” embraces
the belief that not all cops are rotten. Ron has faith in the system; he
has his buddies, and they’re fighting a group of violent white
supremacists, so we too invest ourselves in these good cops and their
fight for justice. But of course, by the end, when Ron’s superior tells
him to drop the K.K.K. case, Ron is surprised to find that the
institution of which he’s a part is fundamentally flawed.
While “BlacKkKlansman” maintains faith that the system might prevail
thanks to a few good cops, “Judas” openly recognizes that the system is
broken and veers more closely to sympathy for the Panthers’ cause
without explicitly promoting or denouncing it.
“Judas” distinguishes itself by providing a nuanced look at the
Panthers, not simply their militant actions but also their community
initiatives. And like many of the characters themselves, the film is
captivated by the charisma of its Black messiah, Fred Hampton (Daniel
Kaluuya
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/movies/daniel-kaluuya-get-out-racism.html>),
who won a Golden Globe on Sunday for his performance. He brings his
usual steely intensity to the role; it’s like watching a game of chicken
between him and the camera, so resolute is his gaze and so palpable his
attention when he cocks his head to the side like a challenge.
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Hampton is not the real focus of the film; Shaka King’s direction and
Kaluuya’s performance give him such depth and appeal that he steals the
spotlight. But the film begins and ends with Bill O’Neal. He is our
eyes, his path is what leads us to Hampton — he should be the film’s
real focus. And his ambivalence and internal conflict about betraying
Hampton, despite his being the propulsive force behind the film’s
tension, lack a clear motivation.
Bill dances around the issue of his motives and politics, whether he’s
working for the F.B.I. or the Panthers. The agent he reports to, Roy
Mitchell (Jesse Plemons), interrogates Bill about his stances on the
assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, but
Bill shrugs off the questions, saying he’s never thought about them.
Whether he’s in earnest or lying to stay safe is unclear. In a later
scene, an undercover Mitchell observes Bill at a rally and concludes
that this operative must actually be invested in the movement — either
that or he’s a terrific actor.
Image
Daniel Kaluuya, left, Ashton Sanders, Algee Smith, Dominique Thorne and
Lakeith Stanfield in a scene from “Judas and the Black Messiah.”
Daniel Kaluuya, left, Ashton Sanders, Algee Smith, Dominique Thorne and
Lakeith Stanfield in a scene from “Judas and the Black
Messiah.”Credit...Glen Wilson/Warner Bros.
And that’s part of the problem too — that Bill/does/seem to be an
Academy Award-worthy actor, and Stanfield, who is such acareful,
cerebral actor
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/04/movies/lakeith-stanfield-sorry-to-bother-you.html>,
delivers a performance that is almost too perfect. With just a sideways
glance or a subtle movement of his mouth he immediately conveys a switch
of role, cluing us in yet again that despite Bill’s seeming devotion to
the Panthers, this is all a performance, one that confounds not just
Agent Mitchell and Fred Hampton but us as well.
It’s possible that we’re meant to see Bill as an opportunist, so
politics are irrelevant. But for a film so blatantly political, that
seems unlikely.
It’s strange that these dramas opted for noncommittal protagonists
because both clearly want to engage with the real world — with history
and modern-day events. “BlacKkKlansman” includes footage of the deadly
Charlottesville Unite the Right rally the year before the movie was
released, and the epilogue of “Judas” includes details about Hampton’s
partner and son and their continued involvement with the Panthers, along
with footage of the real O’Neal from “Eyes on the Prize
<https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/eyesontheprize/>.”
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Perhaps one reason these otherwise politically outspoken (and
liberal-leaning) films are reluctant to take a stance involves actual
history, a fear they might misrepresent the real flesh-and-blood men
they depict. And perhaps it is symptomatic of a lack of imagination that
despite their gestures toward the present, “Judas” and “BlacKkKlansman”
don’t dare expound on Black radical politics or negotiate what these
politics — or even ambivalence — could mean in the context of the
real-life climate in which the films were released.
Image
O’Neal with his F.B.I. handler, played by Jesse Plemons.
O’Neal with his F.B.I. handler, played by Jesse Plemons.Credit...Warner Bros
Either way, the films underestimate the depth of their protagonists and
the awareness of the audience. In the argument between Patrice and Ron
or the meetings between Bill and his F.B.I. handler, King and Lee could
have forced their respective protagonists to confirm their views on
radical activism vs. the law enforcement system and negotiate their
positions in the larger narrative of the history within that divide, but
“Judas” and “BlacKkKlansman” shuffle away, tails between their legs.
In the “Eyes on the Prize” footage, the real O’Neal sits in front of the
camera, in that slate gray suit and tie, and is asked the question we
heard in the beginning: “What would you tell your son about what you did
then?” There’s the pause and the eyes shifting to the right. His
response, when it comes, is indecipherable: “I don’t know what I’d tell
him other than I was part of the struggle, that’s the bottom line.” He
then says that “at least” he “had a point of view,” though he doesn’t
state exactly what that was.
That O’Neal, who committed suicide in 1990 on the same day “Eyes on the
Prize II” premiered, is the film’s Judas is appropriate. In the Bible,
the end of Judas’s story is unclear. In one gospel he hangs himself out
of guilt for betraying Jesus. In another there’s no account of his
guilt, but he dies in what seems an act of divine punishment. Did Judas
betray the Messiah for those 30 pieces of silver alone, or did he have
other reasons? Did he regret the action afterward, and if so, was it for
his role in the murder of another human being or for a more personal
betrayal of his own beliefs, that he offered up the man he honestly
believed was the messiah?
O’Neal’s final words in the clip are, “I think I’ll let history speak
for me.” That’s where O’Neal and these two otherwise good films were
wrong. History has no mouthpiece of its own; it can only speak through
the interpretations of those who tell the stories of the past. And if
those stories intend to also speak to our present, they must speak with
conviction. They must take a stance.
Maya Phillips is a New York Times critic at large. She is the author of
the poetry collection “Erou” (Four Way Books, 2019) and "NERD: On
Navigating Heroes, Magic, and Fandom in the 21st Century,” forthcoming
in summer 2022 from Atria Books.@mayabphillips
<https://twitter.com/mayabphillips>
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