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Movie Review: 'Judas and the Black Messiah'

Daniel Kaluuya is electricity in human form in Judas and the Black Messiah.

By Sean PatrickPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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In January of 1990, a documentary called Eyes on the Prize 2 was aired on PBS. The documentary contained the one and only interview ever conducted with former FBI informant Ron O’Neal. The documentary aired on the night of Martin Luther King Jr Day and that night, after the documentary aired, Ron O’Neal committed suicide by walking into oncoming traffic. Seemingly, O’Neal could no longer live with what he’d done as an FBI informant in the late 1960’s.

The story of what Ron O’Neal did is told in powerful detail in the new drama, Judas and the Black Messiah. Director Shaka King unfolds the story of O’Neal’s unlikely role in the FBI Co-Intel-Pro effort to undermine black power leaders. O’Neal, played in the movie by the exceptional Lakeith Stanfield, was a 19 year old car thief with hardly any interest in the world outside of boosting cars.

When Ron gets picked up by the Chicago police after a near fatal car theft attempt outside a gang controlled bar, he is met by FBI Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons). At the direction of J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen), Mitchell is seeking out young black men willing to act as spies inside the Black Panther organization. O’Neal is a perfect candidate as not only does he not want to go to jail, but his car thief shtick involves pretending to be an undercover FBI Agent.

O’neal’s assignment is to get close to rising star Black Panther Chicago leader, Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). So powerful an orator and leader is the 21 year old Hampton that he’s been dubbed the Black Messiah. Hampton is much more humble but indeed, he’s becoming such a phenomenon that even J. Edgar Hoover has taken notice and called on his Chicago FBI office to do whatever they can to stop the rise of the Messiah.

O’Neal finds it surprisingly easy to rise through the ranks of the Chicago Black Panthers. His big move is simply to have Mitchell provide him with a car. After having been pulled over more times than he can count, Hampton has abandoned driving and O’Neal moves easily into the role of Chauffeur. O’Neal never earns the confidence of Hampton, more often referred to as Chairman, but he secures a place in the circle and uses that position to get paid by the FBI.

Things begin to change as Ron begins to become radicalized by Hampton’s extraordinary speeches. As delivered by an intense and insanely charismatic Daniel Kaluuya, anyone would be hard pressed not to be radicalized. Kaluuya captures the forceful, lightning and thunder power of Hampton in a star making fashion. The words of Fred Hampton delivered here are so relevant and of the moment, audiences risk becoming a radicalized mob eager for a socialist revolution.

Kaluuya is an electric performer whether in fiery speeches or in quiet, vulnerable moments. A subplot in Judas and the Black Messiah is the growing romance between Fred Hampton and Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback). A scene of them trading back and forth remnants of an old Malcolm X speech is incredibly sweet and charming, a welcome respite from the rest of the movie which is urgent and yet downbeat.

Director Shaka King mixes in the romance plot beautifully with the espionage plot. One underlines the tragedy of the other and leads to the moment when Fred Hampton’s life ended. This scene is remarkably harrowing and memorable for how workaday and carelessly the Chicago Police carry out Fred’s off-screen execution. The dialogue of the scene is taken from Deborah Johnson's own recollections of that night and it left me floored at the callous nature of the killing.

You may think you know how insidious the FBI activities against the Black Panthers of the 60s were but you are not prepared for what you see in Judas and the Black Messiah. Shaka King’s matter of fact approach to depicting the Machiavellian tactics of the FBI, using the Chicago Police Department as a blunt instrument of their stealth action, gives weight to what is depicted, as if this almost constant attention was just day to day life for the Panthers. That’s because it was their everyday life.

Lakeith Stanfield brilliantly captures the slowly breaking veneer of Ron O’Neal. When his role in Hampton’s death is fully laid out you won’t be able to stop your internal monologue from begging him to listen to his better angels. Sadly, this is all a mostly true story. O’Neal’s life ended in a despairing tragedy. He never came to terms with what he did and how could he. He may not have directly pulled the trigger on the Black Messiah but like the biblical Judas, his betrayal precipitated the Messiah’s death and folding green stood in place of rounded silver.

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About the Creator

Sean Patrick

Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.

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