In the half century since Fred Hampton, chairman of the Black Panther Party in Illinois, was murdered by the Chicago police, no major Hollywood studio has released a film about his life – and only a small handful of narrative films have the revolutionary group. described which he helped shape.
But a new chapter begins with the debut of Shaka King’s “Judas and the Black Messiah,” a complex double portrait of Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) and William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield), the FBI informant who betrayed him. Warner Bros. released the film simultaneously on HBO Max and in theaters Friday.
In recent interviews, film writers and artists have described “Judas and the Black Messiah” as a welcome correction to mainstream American films depicting the Black Panthers as one-dimensional militant caricatures – or excluding them altogether from stories of the social upheavals of the 1960s.
“In so many films, the Black Panthers are sidelined or ignored,” said film critic Odie Henderson. You see the raised fists, the guns, the leather jackets. It’s fetishistic. But who were the Panthers? ‘
King attempts to answer that question by highlighting how Hampton and his Chicago peers saw themselves as community organizers dedicated to ambitious social programs (including free meals for local children), grassroots activism, and a philosophy of black self-determination.
The film also highlights the charismatic Hampton’s natural skills as a leader, showing how he deftly forged the Rainbow Coalition, a multiracial alliance fighting economic injustice and police brutality, and the way he brought together local activists with soaring speeches.
Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., A co-founder of the Illinois Black Panther Party, who is portrayed in the film by Darrell Britt-Gibson, said in a telephone interview that he hopes viewers’ appreciation for the seriousness of the Ideology and Philosophy of the Panther Party. “
“The leaders of the Black Panther Party were committed social change agents” who studied ways to reshape society, Rush said, later adding, “We weren’t just a bunch of non-thinking automatons.”
“Judas” is broad in scope. In the words of Chicago Tribune columnist William Lee, the film “does not shy away from Hampton’s anti-police rhetoric or violence,” including a dramatic standoff and a shootout in 1969 that killed a party member and two police officers.
“The film is not a rah-rah pro-Panther story or an anti-Panther story. It is very steeped in historical understanding,” said David F. Walker, a comic book writer whose graphic novel about the Black Panther Party was published. last month.
Hollywood has long been accused of misrepresenting American history, centering stories on white rescuers while downplaying – or occasionally obliterating – the lives and legacies of black people, even in some films about the struggle for racial equality.
Over the decades, Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” (1992), Ava DuVernay’s “Selma” (2014), and other Black-led projects have helped the public better understand icons of the civil rights movement. Few narrative features have centered on the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, the revolutionary organization co-founded in Oakland, California in 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, which eventually grew into a national and international party.
There are, of course, notable exceptions. Mario Van Peebles followed the organization’s arc in “Panther” (1995), which is not available on streaming services; Tanya Hamilton told the story of a fictional former Panther (Anthony Mackie) in “Night Catches Us” (2010); and several critically acclaimed documentaries have explored the group.
But the more typical (and stereotypical) fictional depiction of the Panthers, critics say, appears in Robert Zemeckis’ Oscar-winning “Forrest Gump” (1994). In a short but telling scene, Tom Hanks’ title character attends a gathering of armed, leather-clad Black Panthers, all roars and catchphrases.
King, who has directed episodes of comedy series like ‘High Maintenance’ and ‘Shrill’, expressed dismay at that kind of sensational presentation, saying in a recent interview to The Atlantic, ‘I hate it. I hate it. always threatening. “
“They’re caricatures,” said King, who co-wrote the “Judas” script (from a story by Keith and Kenny Lucas) with Will Berson. “I think very often that caricature should be a substitute for real entertainment.”
Walker, the cartoonist, pointed to ‘The Black Gestapo’ (1975) – an exploitative photo about a black vigilante who starts a ‘people’s army’ to defend the residents of Watts – as a particularly ‘laughable’ example of the way popular entertainment has the images of the black liberation movement are distorted.
Henderson, who reviews films for RogerEbert.com, said he believed “Judas” is a major counterbalance not only to older titles, but also at least one high profile release in the running for Oscar nominations this year: the docudrama. from Aaron Sorkin “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who was briefly the eighth co-defendant in the eponymous trial, has a supporting role in Sorkin’s film, and Hampton (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) is only fleetingly seen. In a tale of 1960s radicalism, the Panthers’ anti-capitalist aspirations and anti-racist goals seem “an afterthought,” Henderson said.
Interestingly, several well-known Hollywood personalities of the 1960s and 1970s – Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, “Easy Rider” producer Bert Schneider – supported the Panthers.
“In some ways, Hollywood liberals played an important role in giving money to the Panther cause. But when it came to making movies about them, it was just easier to make them cartoons,” said Trey Ellis, a two-time Emmy-winning screenwriter and novelist who teaches at Columbia University.
And yet, given the way popular films shape our understanding of history, today’s filmmakers have the opportunity to rethink the past and re-evaluate the people and social movements looming in America today.
Ellis recalled that when he first co-wrote the script for a 1995 HBO movie about the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American fighter pilots in the Army Air Corps, very few movies or television shows had dramatized their heroism.
“When I wrote it, no one knew who the pilots were, although there had been a few documentaries,” said Ellis. “The fact that they are now part of the American conversation about black history – I am really proud of that.
“I think ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ will hopefully do the same,” said Ellis.