Judas and the Black Messiah

 

You know between Get Out, Black Panther, and now Judas and The Black Messiah Daniel Kaluuya is shaping up to be a great actor.  This is a powerful movie about betrayal, political corruption, and black liberation.  Daniel Kaluuya plays Fred Hampton, a black revolutionary who mobilizes people not by violence but by persuasive rhetoric.  You get the sense that if it were not for the insidious machinations of the FBI and the police department, Hampton would have created a rainbow coalition of all races to combat social injustice.  Alas, that rainbow coalition was not meant to be.  Anyway, I digress, as performances go, Kaluuya knocks it out of the park. He has a tremendous screen presence and he delivers the rousing speeches with gusto. 

As great as Kaluuya is, I would argue Lakeith Stanfield has the trickier role, playing William O’ Neal.  He has to play the betrayer sure, but he also has to play a character that is in awe of Fred Hampton, but not at the expense of his own self-preservation.  When you boil him down to his bare essentials, O’ Neal is just a cudgel for the FBI to dismantle the Black Panther movement.   But I will say this: Stanfield brings a lot of humanity to a character that is ultimately not very likable which I think is the point.  I don’t have many grievances against the film, aside from some minor technical issues.  I had an issue with Martin Sheen’s make-up, not his performance. 

Sheen plays a racist prick to a tilt, but that prosthetic make-up was so distracting to me.  He looked more like a Dick Tracy villain, not J Edgar Hoover.  Honestly, the filmmakers should have just let Martin Sheen play the role without makeup.  But hey that’s just my opinion.  This movie features a great ensemble of acting talent and there’s not a weak performance in the bunch.  This film is really about Fred Hampton and William O’ Neal, and how they compare and contrast with each other.  This movie is obviously not an easy watch given the subject matter.   But, it’s worth watching for the performances alone, and it gives you a look at the darker parts of American History.