Artemis Swanson
Staff Writer
There are a great number of films that claim to both capture a moment in history and to speak about our present. However, the film “Judas and the Black Messiah,” dedicated to portraying the events leading to the assassination of Fred Hampton, not only achieves this cultural relevancy, but does it with a mastery of the craft of filmmaking and acting.
The film follows William “Bill” O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) as an FBI informant inside the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party. O’Neal’s rise through the ranks of the party and his concerns of being found out act as a grounding track for the audience. However, though O’Neal seems to be the protagonist, the true focus of the film is the man he is spying on, the revolutionary Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). Many of the early scenes are depictions of Hampton’s public appearances, in which he educates his comrades on the merits of socialist theory, speaks about the ineffectiveness of reformism and quotes directly from the likes of Mao, Malcolm X and Huey P. Newton. However, far from being an ideologue, Hampton is portrayed quite accurately as a deeply relatable and magnetic figure (a portrayal strengthened by Kaluuya’s reserved yet expert acting technique), able to act as commander to his classes of comrades, teacher to groups of underprivileged schoolchildren and deeply romantic and charismatic lover to his wife. In fact, Hampton’s wife and fellow party member, Deborah Johnson (portrayed fantastically by Dominique Fishback), accentuates Hampton’s complexity, not only by showing his shy, private personality, but by being open about her own struggles as a woman and mother within the movement. Needless to say, the interactions between Hampton’s inner circle vary in tone, but they are always gripping, and so fundamentally sympathetic that one cannot help but like Hampton.
That being said, Hampton is nowhere near the only part of the story. Orbiting the primary events in the party are brief glimpses into a number of groups and individuals, the most important being a look into the FBI offices. O’Neal’s handler, Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons), acts as the audiences’ eyes into the most classified elements of J. Edgar Hoover’s (Martin Sheen) COINTELPRO program, which spied on and assisted in the murder of activists like Hampton. Mitchell, a seemingly apolitical agent who equates the Black Panthers to the Klan, grows increasingly uncomfortable with the actions of his department but nevertheless commits to following through with them.
The allegory of the Black Messiah is framed quite expertly by the inclusion of these three figures: Hampton the savior, O’Neal the guilty betrayer and Mitchell as the executioner who attempts to wash his hands of the whole ordeal. “Judas and the Black Messiah” is a masterpiece, a must-watch not only for those seeking historical or political context, but also those looking for an expert work of character driven tragedy.