Golden Globes 2021: Judas and the Black Messiah
It is very tricky to successfully tell a story when the audience knows how it ends, both by virtue of its historical context and the title of the film.
Judas and the Black Messiah tells the story of Bill O’Neill (Lakeith Stanfield), a young Black man in the late 1960s who was arrested for stealing a car, but rather than imprisoned was given the opportunity to infiltrate the Black Panther Party as an FBI informant. Bill is the titular Judas to Fred Hampton’s (Daniel Kaluuya) Black Messiah. Even if you know nothing about the history of the Black Panthers, and to be perfectly transparent I would not consider myself well-versed in their history, just based on the title of the film you know how this is going to end. You also know how this is going to end if you watched another nominated film this season, The Trial of the Chicago 7, in which Fred Hampton’s assassination by the Chicago police is a significant, yet background, event.
However, just because you know how a story ends doesn’t mean a film lacks emotional integrity or stakes, right? I’ve seen many films, plays, musicals, TV shows, etc that are based on an existing story or intellectual property and still found myself incredibly moved, either by the performances or by a fresh perspective brought to familiar events. For me, what made Judas and the Black Messiah feel fresh was Daniel Kaluuya’s performance (which for some reason is nominated in a supporting actor category, when I would consider him the lead. I guess Lakeith [who I love always] is technically the lead… whatever) as Fred Hampton. Hampton is not a historical figure I am deeply familiar with, by Kaluuya created a character with such magnetism and ferocity that it was clear to see why his vision led to a revolutionary following. He contrasted this so beautifully in the more quiet and intimate scenes with Deborah (Dominque Fishback), and as we’ve discussed in previous posts, such as my thoughts on One Night in Miami, I find it really significant when biopics about important men in history include their roles as a partner and give screen time to the women in their lives. One of the most moving scenes in the film is a short moment of Fred and Deb lying in bed one morning and as Deb complains that Fred’s feet are cold they engage in a flirtatious argument about socialism- it’s hard to explain, but it was very sweet and one of the only moments of emotional levity in an otherwise very dark and tense film.
This brings me to my primary criticism of Judas and the Black Messiah, which is that the sense of foreboding never recedes and there isn’t a great deal of structural variety in how the action unfolds. I don’t want to undermine the truth in that feeling or imply that there should have been a more romanticized or even parred down portrayal of what it was like to be on the frontlines of the fight against racial injustice in the late 1960s. It was a very difficult and scary time, and the film does not shy away from either the profound social responsibilities taken on by the Panthers- including their groundbreaking free breakfast programs and aspirations to start a free clinic- nor the fact that they were an armed defense group. There is a lot of gun violence through out the film, culminating in the final, horrendous, raid of the Chicago Black Panthers headquarters and assassination of Hampton, and I found it really difficult to sit through and often covered my eyes during shoot out scenes. Like I said earlier, this is a true story and shying away from the violence would not have done it justice, but it’s something I personally find very difficult to watch.
For me, personally, films like Trial of the Chicago 7 and One Night in Miami were more structurally and substantially varied and, to be blunt, easier to digest films about the turbulence of the 1960s. However, Judas and the Black Messiah is singularly focused with reason. For most of my life, I have known next to nothing about the Black Panthers, and that is a failure of both the American public school system and my own lack of initiative as an adult to revisit times and topics that were glossed over in my time as a student. It was difficult to watch, but I don’t think there’s an honest way to tell this story that isn’t difficult. While it’s hard for me to say that I enjoyed the experience, I’m glad I watched the film because it opened my eyes to a conflict I didn’t previously know much about.
Additionally, Daniel Kaluuya’s performance was stupid good. Without even going on a rant about how good his dialect work is, can we just talk about his diction for a second? The absolute CLARITY in his speech. Nuts. Insane. A man after my own heart. I also have to take a moment to praise Lakeith, who was given the very difficult task of playing a double agent who is constantly freaked out, and while in my opinion they didn’t do a great job in the script in terms of giving him a lot to work with, you could see it all in his eyes.
Judas and the Black Messiah is available to stream on HBOMax. Daniel Kaluuya is nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture and the song “Fight for You” by H.E.R. is nominated for Best Original Song, Motion Picture.