BlacKkKlansman (2018) Movie Review
BlacKkKlansman (2018) Movie Review
It is actually very difficult to begin talking about BlacKkKlansman. I’ll just start off by saying that it’s great, obviously, it’s an extremely well-made film. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting it to be, but I did indeed enjoy it and it gives you a lot to ponder upon (my vocabulary is growing). Spike Lee has quickly become one of my favorite filmmakers. Do the Right Thing is currently my all-time favorite movie, and I also had a lot of respect for Malcolm X when I saw it. BlacKkKlansman is perhaps more fun than those movies, but still isn’t a comedy. Trailers and reviews indicating that it’s a comedy are wrong, because it isn’t. While it does certainly have some funny moments, it’s for the most part deadly serious and very tense. It’s for sure that racism and the KKK aren’t really anything to joke about, but I’m glad this movie does provide the occasional laugh because without it, it could potentially be very difficult to watch. The racist villains are so unbelievably evil that it’s sometimes hard to process, especially when they begin to turn their thoughts into actions. Luckily there’s a moment where a fat guy tries to touch C4 but nobody will let him. But I was the only one in the theater laughing at that. My sense of humor is just a *little* different than everyone else’s.
If you’re not really in the movie community and you don’t know the basic plot of this movie, let me explain it to you. A black rookie cop named Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) serving in the Colorado Springs Police Department decides to try and infiltrate the KKK. He makes some calls and before he knows it, he’s partnered up with Phillip “Flip” Zimmerman (Adam Driver) to take them down. Ron also meets Patrice (Laura Harrier), a local black activist, at a rally and begins a relationship. Everything kinda hits the fan and there’s some KKK battling and stuff. It’s a great movie.
There are some really standout scenes and shots in this movie that make it just *that* much more special. In the very beginning, there’s a shot from above of Ron that shows how he has very little control or power as a black man in this environment. At the very end, there’s a dolly shot of Ron and Patrice going down a hallway with guns pointed out and then you know: this is one of Lee’s best movies he’s ever made. There’s also a really long black rally scene where Black Panther activist Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins) makes a speech that goes on for so long that you know it’s not there because of the movie… it’s basically Spike Lee speaking to the audience. It’s his turn to talk, not the movie’s. It’s kind of like that fistfight scene in They Live: it doesn’t have as much to do with the plot as it does with what the movie has to say. There’s also a scene at a disco bar/club (I’m not really sure, maybe that was a restaurant? It looked like a bar but there was a disco ball) where the song “Too Late to Turn Back Now” by the Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose is playing, and the song itself isn’t about politics, but the way it’s played, it suddenly becomes about everything going on at that time and stuff. That has got to be one of my favorite uses of a song in a film, like, ever.
BlacKkKlansman is a really good movie, for sure. It’s full of amazing moments and messages and it’s very well-made. But it won’t have the staying power of Do the Right Thing. It just won’t. I didn’t find myself thinking about it days after I saw it, which was kind of what I wanted to do. Even though the movie is about some very serious and dangerous topics, it kinda takes the easy, safe route. It never questions the motives of the activists or heroes, even though they’re obviously the heroes, which is what 80’s/90’s Lee would have done. There’s a certain electricity that’s missing. BlacKkKlansman is a movie that will be studied more for its political standpoint, not for how it handles itself in terms of how it lays out as a film. The characters are very interesting and as far as “real story” movies go, it’s well above par, but the movie isn’t exciting, it’s just spitting out politics without truly giving itself any challenge.
Safety Chart:
Violence: 5/10- While there’s not a ton of actual violence, there is a lot of unsettling hatred that is so evil it’s almost violent. One man gets caught in an explosion, but it’s not graphic. There’s a scene where a lynching and torture of a black man is talked about in excruciating detail.
Language: 9/10- It’s at times incredibly profane. Laden at every corner with uses of the n-word and other racial and religious slurs. The f-word and all of its friends are invited to the party that is BlacKkKlansman.
Drinking/Smoking: 7/10- Lots of smoking throughout, some drinking in a party scene.
BlacKkKlansman is interesting, captivating, and provocative, and it’s a little more enjoyable than the subject matter would let on. I’m giving it an A-. Spike Lee obviously poured his heart out into this movie, and the actors all do terrific work, and from a technical standpoint there’s not a whole lot wrong with this film. But there’s a certain excitement that’s missing… I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s a movie that will be remembered for years to come, but it doesn’t have a magical quality that would make it a classic. It won’t be a classic. It’ll just be a really good movie.
