• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Film

Film Review: Judas and the Black Messiah

Powerful biopic which resonates deeply in a modern America still so deeply infected with institutional racism

Christopher Marchant by Christopher Marchant
2021-06-08 17:04
in Film, Film Reviews
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

★★★★☆

In 1968, long time FBI director J Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen) has defined African American nationalist movement the Black Panthers as a domestic terrorist threat. Desperate to avoid charismatic Chicago chapter leader Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) uniting the movement as a ‘black messiah’, he encourages the Bureau to develop a low level crook into a confidential informant operating at the heart of the Panthers.

What develops of the course of the story is a tale of furious anger, directed with energy and panache against the unjust overlords of a system designed to keep the black man down. The FBI’s reaction to the Black Panthers ironically only serves to justify and escalate its radical nature, and every persecution leads only greater weight to Hampton’s fiery oratory.

Betraying his race for his own interests is Bill O’Neal, the ‘Judas’ played by Lakeith Stanfield who brilliantly captures the internal turmoil this causes. His is a performance matched by Jesse Plemons as his FBI handler Roy Mitchell, who sees himself as taking down an organisation comparable to the Ku Klux Klan.

While there was more narrative tightness from Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay for The Trial of the Chicago Seven, the events of which are mentioned in passing here, Judas and The Black Messiah  largely makes up for it in a series of absorbing exchanges and effective set pieces, all underlaid with a constant classic tension of a rat wondering if they’re about to walk into a trap. 

This being said, a few minutes less screen time and a more effective adoption of steadily increasing threat could have been in the film’s favour. I hugely rate Dominique Fishback as an actor from her time on The Deuce, but her scenes as Hampton’s love interest stood out in particular for a certain flatness.

Regardless, not portraying O’Neal as an outright villain is a strong narrative decision, and lends greater weight to the denouement of a tortured and tragic story. Both portrayals were nominated for Best Supporting Actor for their roles, with Kaluuya winning, though both could equally as fairly been nominated for Best Actor given their amount of screen time.

Right up to an ending that disturbingly mirrors the death of Breonna Taylor, Judas and the Black Messiah is able to draw modern comparisons with the historic actions of the FBI and continually racist police forces in America, and asks of the viewer what must be done for there to ever be change.

RelatedPosts

Final Thoughts on Cannes 2022

Cannes 2022 Review: Tori and Lokita

Cannes 2022 Review: Pacifiction

Cannes 2022 Review: Elvis

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Brexiteer hails ‘unprecedented’ crowd at Peterborough rally – gets reminded of this

Climate change protesters dressed as bees invade Brexit Party office

Boris Johnson’s reported backstop plans leaked by Irish press

Labour spent £95k on Hartlepool by-election, which it lost

Essex-based logistics firm handed £800m of Covid contracts without tender

Brexit: ‘Government’s irresponsible approach’ as only 16 extra staff added to HMRC ranks

WATCH: Jeff Bezos returns to Earth after historic space flight

Watch – Eclipse of the great white sharks

‘Mask has slipped’: Tory MP shares paper denying climate crisis

‘Jaw dropping’ – Earth’s insect population ‘shrinks 27% in 30 years’

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.