BlackkKlansman (new Spike Lee film)

One of the year's big Oscar bait failures had to be "Front Runner". That one looked like it'd be a major contender but nuttin'!

 

If the film treated the 2 characters more equally, I'd be less inclined to call it a "white savior" movie.

But they're not - it's Tony's movie. That's why VM got a Best Actor nod and MA got Best Supporting Actor...

 

I agree. Both Clockers and Do The Right Thing are leagues better than the didacticism larded into BlacKKKlansman. Both of them are arguably better films than anything nominated for Best Picture this year. But BlacKKKlansman didn't even deserve a nomination. (All of which serves to support my contention that annual film awards are capricious bull**** in the first place.)

By the time the plot of BlacKKKlansman gets to this scene, any claim of historical versimilitude vanishes (quoting the Wiki summary):

"...Felix's wife Connie leaves the ceremony to place a bomb at a civil rights rally. Stallworth realizes her intentions and alerts local police officers. When Connie notices a heavy police presence at the rally, she goes to plant the bomb at Patrice's house instead, which was the pre-arranged Plan B. When she is unable to fit the bomb in her mailbox, she puts it on Patrice's car instead. Stallworth tackles her as she tries to flee, but uniformed officers detain and beat him despite his protests that he is working undercover.

Bombmaker Walker recognizes Zimmerman from a prior arrest. He, Felix and Ivanhoe arrive and trigger the bomb, not realizing where Connie hid it, and are killed in the explosion. Zimmerman arrives and frees Stallworth, and Connie is arrested. While celebrating the closed case that night, Stallworth wears a hidden microphone and tricks a drunken Landers into bragging about his assault on Patrice. Landers is arrested..."

In reality, there is no Patrice (supposedly Stallworth's black activist girlfriend, and a pivotal character in the plot of the film.)

In reality, there's also no bomb planting- either intended to target a civil rights rally, or consequently diverted to the alternate target of (fictional character) Patrice. So there is no bomb that turns out to be too big to fit into (fictional character) Patrice's mailbox. There is no snap hot-potato decision made by a (fictional) Klansman's wife carrying the (fictional) bomb to target (fictional) Patrice's (fictional) automobile instead.

[In nonfiction historical reality, there was apparently some evidence of conspiracy plotting by Colorado Klanspeople who intended to target gay bars with bombs, along with plans to burn crosses. According to my reading, both activities were apparently thwarted well in advance, by the nonfiction Colorado Springs police investigation that featured Ron Stallworth.]

So there is no Klansman's wife carrying a bomb around, who then gets tackled by undercover police officer Stallworth, who is then spotted doing the takedown by uniformed Colorado Springs police officers (white), who respond to the cries of the Klanwoman bomb-planter that she's being mugged, and consequently assume that Stallworth must be mugging her for no other reason than that he's obviously tackled her (which apparently indicates that they're racist, presumably because a white man seen tackling a white woman on the street or wrestling with her on the ground would get the benefit of the doubt, but Stallworth doesn't get that pass, because he's black.) In reality, there is no incident like that depited in the film, of black police officer Ron Stallworth being detained in a racist rush to judgement and then illegally assaulted with impunity by racist white colleagues in the Colorado Springs police department, until he finally manages to produce identification proving that he's an undercover investigator who is actually a fellow police officer, part of their own organization.

Also, there is no sneering white racist police colleague of Stallworth's who later drunkenly harasses and sexually assaults (fictional) Patrice in a fit of racist lust and then gets nabbed by Stallworth, wearing a wire to record the white racist cop bragging about it to him, either.

To sum up: in factual reality, none of those parts of the film narrative of BlacKKKlansman actually happened. I wonder how many people walking out of the movie theater after a showing of BlacKKKlansman will be unclear on that score.

Granted, I don't like "historical docudramas" in the first place. Nearly all of them take too many liberties with the facts, which comprise the basis for historical truth. But BlacKKKlansman is outright misleading in that department. The only prize it might possibly deserve would be for Scenery-Chewing Artistic License. And given the lurid fantasy quotient of Lee's film docudrama, the fact that he closed it out with a scene from Birth of a Nation is- however unintentionally- an irony as heavy as lead.

 

I'm watching it. It's sluggish; flaccidly directed. I mean, like almost badly directed. The lead, John David Washington, is great however. But some of the supporting actor are obviously amateurs.

 

Not a big fan of Spike Lee, but I enjoyed this film. 4 little Girls is by far the best thing he ever did.

 

I agree something was off with the pacing and delivery. I thought it was ok but a better editing job would have made it a lot better film imo. But I did enjoy the performances of Washington and the guy from that 70's show! And I have to admit I fast forwarded through a bunch of it.

 

In terms of a Oscar this film poses the question what makes a truly great film and how far can you push facts to show a greater truth.

Purely in terms of a 'story' the film isn't compelling but the narrative it's intended to reveal is probably the most powerful I've ever seen in a film.

 

You should watch In The Heat Of The Night. Similar thematic content in a lot of ways. But a much better film, in my opinion.

For what it's worth, In The Heat Of The Night won the Oscar for Best Picture and for Best Actor in a Leading Role- to Rod Steiger, who was more or less co-lead with Sidney Poitier.
In 1967.

(Both Steiger and Sidney Poitier are terrific in their roles. But Poitier had already won an Oscar for Best Leading Role, in 1964, so it was Steiger's turn for a nomination.)

 

I probably watch that not long after it was released and yes it's a much better film in lots of ways, remembering many of the scenes proves it to me.

 

It’s about 2:14min. Cut 14 Mins and it
Would be much better. Especially in the first 30 mins.

 

Yeah. The guy from that 70s show was a
Riot! I mean. I finished the movie but it was a chore at times — too slow. But it wasn’t a bad film. It was entertaining and David Duke livened things up.

 

One of the classics. Cool Hand Luke. In the heat of
The night. Is it any wonder why I clamor for less superheroes?

 

Saw this last night. Really liked it.

Spoiler

Did the part with the bomb blowing up the car along with the Klansmen really happen?

 

Well, those are Lee's trademarks.

 

I could have done without the epilogue (which, while certainly socially important, I didn't think needed to be attached to this particular film about an incident from the 1970's).

I also felt the "rally" sequence near the beginning went on a bit too long, but yeah yeah I know Lee had to get his message in there, even if it meant dragging an otherwise interesting 70's cop film to a grinding hault. There were lots of strong and memorable sequences in this picture but it needed a little tightening up and less clunky self-indulgence ("Golly, surely they'd never elect someone like THAT for President, would they?").

 

You are talking about Spike Lee?

If ‘Do The Right Thing’ was “sluggish”, I’m hoping it was just your old VCR going dead on you, because the amount of Valium one would need to ingest for that movie (and the one that basically brought him to more widespread acclaim) to be moving slow is a very scary thought.

 

I saw this about three weeks ago, and I really liked it too. Maybe it isn't Spike at the top of his powers, but good Spike is miles ahead of the drivel at the movie theater nowadays. I did think it was a tad too long, as others have noted. But for me, the epilogue brought tears to my eyes, esp. as I recalled Heather Heyer's death in Charlottesville. Spike's whole point with the epilogue was to connect the past with the present -- the same white supremacist sh/t is still going on today as it was a half century ago, and even earlier. Movies can be both entertaining and socially responsible at the same time.

 

There’s a reason Do The Right Thing is the most often cited of Lee’s movies...

 

I finally bought the Blu-ray for $10 at Target. But, I have it and a whole stack of movies about racism that I still have to watch. I'm just waiting for a time when I can deal with the anger I will feel when I do watch them. I haven't even taken the wrap off the "12 years A Slave" blu-ray yet.