BlacKkKlansman (2018)
[Reader disclaimer: there will be spoilers discussed. This piece also contains material of a sensitive nature].
Hello and welcome back to K.Smith Blogs! I have been inactive for about a month due to deadlines and some personal issues but I have returned in lieu of that glorious time of year: Oscars season. I'll be posting twice a week until the end of this month, reviewing each film that is currently nominated for Best Picture and giving my thoughts (as I always do) on how it fares as both a movie and also a nominee (I will also include my thoughts on certain films that are nominated for more than one category).
We're kicking off today with BlacKkKlansman (2018), a biopic based on Ron Stallworth, the first African-American detective in the Colorado Springs police force in the 1970s. I will let you know now that I went into seeing this film with absolutely no context: I had read no reviews nor watched any interviews with the cast. I went in blind, and thank god I did, because this rose in my estimations instantly.
Let's start with the opening, a monologue of American, radicalised propaganda performed by Alec Baldwin. Immediately the film steps on your throat with its satire but equally frightening sense of reality: to the more progressive of us in society, this opening is funny and we recognise that, tonally, it is mocking the old prejudiced ways of American socio-politics. However, what becomes daunting is that as the film progresses, this violently discriminatory mindset is still very much founded in our current political climate, in parts reflecting President Trump's ideologies and biased towards people of colour.
The most interesting part of this film, at least to me, was the parallels between showing black empowerment and white supremacy. There are two or three scenes that marry harmoniously together, specifically in the third act where a man named Jerome Turner (played by Harry Belafonte) is recalling an anecdote in which his mentally handicapped friend was falsely accused of rape and consequently berated and murdered in public, which in turn contrasted with shots of the KKK watching a film and shouting racist slurs, screaming profanity whenever an African-American actor appeared on screen, and banding together to chant in chilling unison, "white power".
This was the part of the film that I found hardest to watch (not that I found any of it particularly easy). To see such disgusting behaviour, such intolerance towards other human beings, made me feel insanely shameful, and I think anybody like myself who is white should feel that way when watching it. Because the beauty of BlacKkKlansman is conveying the importance of "power to all the people" and showing that in the 70s and in modern day, white people still threaten that ideal.
This film has tremendously witty dialogue, interspersed at perfect moments to either break tension or bring a scene to a grinding, poignant halt. The humour is dry yet snappy, the monologues eloquent and powerful: it was engaging, as it should be, for anyone watching.
One of the most important parts of this film, which is very unusual, is the end. Most films come to a rounded conclusion or a stalemate in a narrative, but BlacKkKlansman is not taking it easy on anybody, nor should it. At the end of the film, we are shown real footage from 2017, in which neo-nazis marched in Charlotesville: we are shown the real David Duke (played by Topher Grace in the film) sympathising with President Trump's speeches, we are shown white men and women marching the streets and chanting of their supposed "oppression", and finally we are shown the car that was driven into a crowd of people, injuring many and killing a woman named Heather Heyer, whom the film is partially dedicated to.
This ending, though difficult to watch, is arguably the most powerful part of the film. It's easy to fictionalise events and show them on screen through actors and settings and lighting, but once you are shown reality, you are forced to conceptualise and accept that these were not just dramatised events: these were things that happened, that are happening now to minorities not just in America, but globally.
I would highly recommend this film to anybody. I would even say that it is crucial for people to watch this film, to understand the history behind it and to see where its relevancy applies to our lives now, because it is scary to think that the KKK ideology is still around us. It disguises itself as neo-nazis, the alt-right, MAGA. It's real and I think this film does a fantastic job of storytelling in a visceral yet still thoroughly entertaining way.
What's it nominated for?
Currently, BlacKkKlansman is nominated for:
- Best Picture - Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum and Raymond Mansfield
- Best Supporting Actor - Adam Driver
- Best Director - Spike Lee
- Best Original Music Score - Terence Blanchard
- Best Adapted Screenplay - Spike Lee, Kevin Willmott, Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz
- Best Film Editing - Barry Alexander Brown
Should it win?
Hard to say at this point. As I'm writing this, I have only viewed two of the eight contenders for Best Picture, but I'd certainly say that it has a good chance: it would be almost a failing to not consider it at least top three tier when it comes to who should win, that's for sure.
Adam Driver is a spectacular actor, however, I doubt he'll be nabbing the win for Best Supporting Actor, as he's up against people like Sam Rockwell and Mahershala Ali. I will say that John David Washington being snubbed as a nominee for Best Actor didn't sit well with me: he was a big focus of the film and carried the narrative along so efficiently. The fact that Driver was nominated, and Washington wasn't, seems incredibly disingenuous.
Overall rating: 9/10
- K
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