BlacKkKlansman
A powerful yet very nuanced anti-rascism message
This is a masterclass in how to make a entertaining and accessible movie with also a very strong message! Crazy to think that this is based on a true story.
The movie contains some very tense moments (as is to be expected from an undercover movie), making it very captivating from beginning to end. At the same time, the story tells a powerful anti-rascism message. I particularly want to praise how nuanced this message is. Let me explan:
In the beginning of the movie, Ron enters the police force as a black man trying to reduce police brutality against black people from the inside. Shortly after that, Flip joins the KKK as a Jewish person, also trying to prevent agression of the organization from within. In this sense, the KKK is being compared to the (70s) police force, and I believe rightfully so.
What makes the movie particularly interesting though, is that the KKK is not only being compared with the police, but also with black activist groups. While not stating so explicitly, this does suggest that it is probably not a good idea to fight racism-fueled violence by more violence, as you will be no different from the very thing you fight against. Instead, it might be more impactful to change the system from within, like Ron attempts to do.
For most of the movie, the tone is held relatively light (considering the heaviness of the subject) with some humor here and there. This changes suddenly at the end however, when the movie translates the racial violence in the movie to real life, present day events. Honestly I think a warning for these images would not have been out of place, they took me quite off guard with how shockingly graphic they were. Still these images were absolutely necessary to show that the racism depicted in the movie is unfortunately still everpresent in our society, and not only limited to the past.
Last but not least: as a big time fan of the wire, I was pleasantly surprised to see an appearance of Isiah Whitlock Jr. with his iconic "Sheeeeeeiiiiiiiit", hahahah. His character literally didn't even do anything besides that so I feel like this was intended purely a Clay Davis cameo, I love it 😂😂