Judas and the Black Messiah 4K 2021 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

Chicago, 1968. Caught stealing a car with a fake FBI ID, criminal William O'Neil agrees to a deal with the feds. He infiltrates a branch of the radical Black Panthers organization and gains the trust of its leader Fred Hampton just as he begins to unite local ethnic organizations into the Rainbow Coalition.

Review 4K Movie

Last September, Aaron Sorkin's new film, the drama 'The Trial of the Chicago Seven', was released, chronicling the twists and turns of the trial of a group of seven Protestants accused of inciting riots on the streets of Chicago in 1968.

In addition to the seven, the eighth defendant was Bobby Seale, national chairman of the Black Panthers, who was supported in the trial by Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Panthers. In Sorkin's film, he was played by Calvin Harrison Jr, but the character had, let's face it, very little screen time.

Here the director and producer of the movie 'Judas and the Black Messiah' Shaka King made Hampton the main character. The main plot of the whole picture is based on two components: Hampton's career and activities in the ranks of the 'Black Panthers' and his uncompromising attempts to fight for equal rights for blacks, taking place in parallel with the story of the introduction of a former criminal named Bill O'Neil into the ranks of the group, who, having become an FBI informant, reported to the authorities about the actions and intentions of the group and, in the end, was almost directly responsible for Hampton's death.

With a long track record as a director, but playing mostly in the field of short films and television movies, Shaka tries very hard to make a powerful movie on a topic that is relevant and topical today, but my impressions of the movie are mixed.

To be successful, a biopic must turn a chain of small and sometimes unimportant facts of life into a monumental whole narrative about a person who step by step turns into a legend, into something great, inimitable and unique. And the final coda is either the total success and triumph of the protagonist, or the tragic finale and the end of his career, and sometimes of his life. Apotheosis, the final coda. You can exhale.

It is this component of a successful biopic that the current picture so desperately lacks. Its plot now and then falls apart into a series of everyday situations, which all together do not allow you to create an image of a powerful, outstanding hero, which was undoubtedly Hampton in reality, because the ability to lead the masses of people and become a leader of the movement is not given to everyone.

But King's film suffers not only from the lack of appropriate and necessary screen pathos and exaltation of the main character, but also from dialogues that are trivial, commonplace and sometimes do not contribute to the overall plot. How not to remember Aaron Sorkin, whose dialog skills and mastery would have come in handy here in the best possible way.

The actors chosen for the lead roles do a passable job with their portrayals. Watching the speeches of Daniel Kaluya, sometimes involuntarily infected by his energy and see a kind of Lenin before the October Revolution, except that the armored car is not enough.

Lakit Stanfield quite convincingly tries to show the mental anguish of his hero, who may even be imbued with the ideas of the Panthers. But the desire for his own well-being and the fear of going to jail still lead to the fact that he takes a sin on his soul, to part with which he will not be able to the rest of his life.

Dominic Fishback, Ashton Sanders and others to the best of their abilities and capabilities fill the screen with interesting images, which, however, there is nothing to play. Yes, by the way, there is a place in the picture and Martin Sheen, who played John Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, who held his post for almost half a century.

But neither they (I call them the subplot), nor the lead actors could make me completely engrossed in the story, forgetting about everything around. No, unfortunately, the aloofness, restraint and a certain stiffness of the actors and director does not leave the screen for a moment, which, of course, is not at all conducive to a good assessment. Of all the actors, I liked Jesse Plemons the most as FBI agent Roy Mitchell, Bill O'Neill's direct handler.

On the other hand, the tape about the last years of Fred Hampton's life, his activities as the leader of the Black Panthers and the defender of the rights of the black population of America was a good incentive for me to dig into the background of the whole story, to get acquainted with who were the Black Panthers, where they came from, where they came to.

Perhaps, to get acquainted not only with them, but also to plunge back into the history of American life in the late 60's and early 70's of the last century. Favor, I have been interested in this topic for a long time and a lot. All the more so that now it is hardly possible to consider this page of the history of the USA turned. We return to it again to compare, repeat or draw conclusions from what was and what will be in the future.

Anyway, the movie has been released, has already received a lot of flattering reviews at the Sundance festival this February, where it was, I think, for the first time more or less widely presented.

And on February 12, 2021, the picture hit wide distribution and was simultaneously presented in the streaming service HBO Max. Many critics and journalists have already predicted the movie's way to the Oscars. Well, we'll see. In my universe, Shaka King's new work gets a solid 7 out of 10, and is hardly worthy of a statuette.

And the real story of events is sadly sad: on December 4, 1969, as a result of a police operation, Fred Hampton and several fellow party members were killed in cold blood on the spot by police officers, Hampton's pregnant wife and several other people were arrested. Seven survivors (seven again, take note!) went on trial, but eventually all charges against them were dropped.

After Hampton's death and funeral, which was attended by over 5,000 people to say goodbye to Fred, other black rights leaders in America made him an icon of their movement.

In 1970, the survivors of the shooting by members of the Black Panthers and relatives of their fallen comrades filed a lawsuit against the police, the FBI, and the City of Chicago that lasted an interminable 12 years and ended with payouts in favor of each plaintiff. The total payout amounted to $1.85 million, which at the time was the largest amount ever paid out in a civil suit.

P.S. In his entire life, FBI informant Bill O'Neill gave only one television interview in 1989, which aired in the United States on January 15, 1990. On the evening of the same day, O'Neill committed suicide.