BlacKkKlansman
08/09/18 Filed in: Cinema
An African American cop infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s is hard to believe, but this is the plot of this film from Spike Lee. Ron Stallworth always wanted to be a cop, so he applies to the all-white Colorado Springs police force and convinces his interviewers to take him on, beautifully coiffed afro and all. His inauspicious start in the records archive soon starts to demoralise him, so he requests a transfer to the detectives. At first denied (surprise, surprise!), an opportunity arises when the department wants somebody to go under cover at a meeting being addressed by Kwame Ture, a national civil rights leader. This goes well, and also introduces Ron to Patrice Dumas, whose afro outdoes Ron's. She's president of the black students' union and becomes Ron's ongoing love interest.
Sitting with the detectives, and flush with his success at the civil rights rally, Ron spots an advert from the Ku Klux Klan for new members. So he phones the number and speaks to Walter, convincing him of his anti-black credentials. A meeting is arranged. Of course Ron can't go, for obvious reasons, but Flip Zimmerman, one of his fellow detectives, agrees to do the 'meetings', while Ron handles the telephone conversations. The fact that their voices are different, and that Zimmerman is a non-practising Jew, making him as much a target of the Klan as Ron, just adds to the mix of tension and humour.
They are so convincing that, with the benefit of the stupidity exhibited by some of the KKK members, they are able to progress Ron's full membership. And no less than the Grand Wizard of the Klan, David Duke, is going to be present at Ron's (actually Flip's) inauguration. To stir the mix a bit more, the police chief assigns Ron as personal protection officer to David Duke, which as you can imagine creates a somewhat awkward situation. Meanwhile a small group of Klan members is planning something far more radical, targeting Patrice, who they regard as the principal trouble maker.
As these various plot lines converge we witness the evil of the Klan as its members celebrate their perverse beliefs watching The Birth of a Nation, which is set against the humanity of the African Americans, as Jerome Turner (played by Harry Belafonte) describes to a rally the lynching of a young black man in 1916. This counter-point is remarkable in itself, but is worryingly reinforced by recent newsreel clips shown at the end of the film, which remind us that the prejudice of the 70s is still alive and well in today's America, with President Trump seeming to do more to inflame rather than discourage it.
This film is based on real events although, as is often the case, enough fiction has been injected to make the film a commercial success.
As these various plot lines converge we witness the evil of the Klan as its members celebrate their perverse beliefs watching The Birth of a Nation, which is set against the humanity of the African Americans, as Jerome Turner (played by Harry Belafonte) describes to a rally the lynching of a young black man in 1916. This counter-point is remarkable in itself, but is worryingly reinforced by recent newsreel clips shown at the end of the film, which remind us that the prejudice of the 70s is still alive and well in today's America, with President Trump seeming to do more to inflame rather than discourage it.
This film is based on real events although, as is often the case, enough fiction has been injected to make the film a commercial success.