It’s unfortunate that I have to begin this review pointing out how timely it is that a film like this is being made, or the countless others before it in recent years that began the same way. There have been so many prominent people that lead the charge for equality, only to end up being arrested, beaten, assassinated or silenced. They’ve since had movies made about them, movies that are impactful, touching and make waves during awards season, and it’s encouraging to watch the stories of these people play out, yet it’s just heartbreaking that it feels like nothing is changing despite all their work and sacrifice.
Judas and the Black Messiah tells the story of two polar opposite men: Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) and Bill O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) whose lives and fates intertwined back in the late 1960s. Fred Hampton was the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP), and deputy chairman to the national BPP. He was a man whose voice was heard; a man who made sure his voice was heard to put it in better terms. He was a revolutionary who wanted better for his people, cared for his people and was tired of seeing them being treated as unequal.
Now he did speak in a way that some may view as counterproductive, catching the eye of the FBI with his words and recruitment of rival gangs in Chicago in hopes of standing up against the police and powers who viewed them as less than. It’s here where the movie takes focus, when Bill O’Neal is arrested for impersonating an FBI agent and is offered and agrees to a plea deal to infiltrate the Black Panther Party, get close to Hampton, and feed the FBI details as to what he has planned.
Kaluuya won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Hampton, and Stanfield was nominated right there alongside him. They’re both fantastic in the film, with Hampton charged with the task of bringing such a well-known, powerful persona to life on the screen, and Stanfield having to bring a level of human decency, and internal struggle to a man who only aimed to look out for himself. If you’re not familiar with their names right now, that’s understandable; however, don’t expect that to last delivering performances like these.
Director Shaka King, who also co-wrote the script with Will Berson, does a great job of encapsulating this period in time and telling the story in riveting fashion. I’m not an expert on the subject, but I’d have to think there are a lot more layers to everything that went down during this time with the Black Panther Party, the coalition with once rival gangs, their disputes with police and their slow recruitment of kids growing up in the same situation through breakfast programs and the likes; however, this is the story of Hampton and O’Neal, not the Black Panther Party as a whole and I believe King and Berson did a great job of touching on all of the above and having it enhance the story of these two characters instead of overtaking it.
While I don’t believe things will change across the board any time soon, I do hope we’re beginning to head down the right path with everything that has happened of late. But as these movies all prove time and time again, we’ve been there before and thought things were getting better and now with cameras on everything all the time we see just how wrong we were. So all we can do is continue to be better as people, to not be silent to injustice and to make sure these movies aren’t just viewed as entertainment, but as a different way to get these stories out there about people who sacrificed everything to try and bring a level of equality to the world that I truly do hope we come to see.
Video & Audio:
The film has a solid video transfer to Blu-ray, with each scene looking good and popping when required. The details are strong, even at night when weaker transfers cause muddier visuals, or distracting contrasts. Here, nothing distracts, and nothing takes away from the story being told. The film just looks good all around. On the audio side of things we have a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix, which comes across beautifully across the board. From clear dialogue to the heavy hitting score at key moments, it all mixes well and elevates the story being told the way audio should.
Special Features:
Fred Hampton for the People – this feature comes in at just over nine-minutes in length and sees the cast and crew talking about Hampton, what he stood for, the impact he had, and why it’s important that his story is being told. Pretty by the books feature that’s an easy watch.
Unexpected Betrayal – This one comes in at just under eight-minutes in length and talks about the film’s other central character in William O’Neil. This one is a bit more interesting, as we get to hear Stanfield talk about taking on the role of someone like O’Neil and the challenge of trying to keep the audience on their toes when it comes to what they think is going through O’Neil’s mind, even if they know the outcome.
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents Judas and the Black Messiah. Directed by: Shaka King. Written by: Shaka King, Will Berson. Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Dominique Fishback, Jesse Plemons. Running time: 126 Minutes. Rating: 14A. Released on Blu-ray: May 4, 2021.
About Brendan Campbell
