Judas and the Black Messiah, directed by Shaka King, 2021,
2 hours and 6 minutes
Fred Hampton was the young, fearless Deputy Chairman of the Black Panther Party (BPP) Chicago branch. As one of the original founders of the Illinois chapter, he was an integral part of the black liberation struggle in the late 1960s. Hampton understood that only a multicultural, revolutionary, and proletariat-led struggle could pose a real threat to the oppressive capitalist system. His admirable leadership and distinguished communication skills saw the birth of the Rainbow Coalition – an alliance made up of different minority groups in Chicago including the BPP; the Young Patriots, made of working-class whites who had migrated from the south; the Young Lords, made of Latino street gangs, and several other oppressed groups. Hampton realised the need to reach out to the wider marginalised population and create open dialogue on a democratic platform. This was an approach that the US black liberation struggle had rarely been seen before.
Hampton committed his life to building an anti-imperialist and communist movement in the US. He and his comrades set standards for waging struggle. The Panthers gained tremendous community following through free health clinics, educational sessions, and most successfully the free breakfast programme, which saw thousands of children eat for free each day before school. Community engagement was key in uniting the oppressed.
What makes Hampton so significant is that, instead of organising solely around national class struggle, he encouraged everyone around him to connect this national class struggle to international freedom movements. Hampton knew that knowledge is the catalyst of a revolution and through studying various communist literature, at the age of 20 he was already considered to be arguably the most advanced political thinker in the Panther ranks.
‘We’re going to fight racism not with racism, but we’re going to fight with solidarity. We say we’re not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we’re going to fight it with socialism.’
Judas and the Black Messiah depicts Fred’s tenure as chairman of the Chicago branch of the Black Panther Party and it brings to life the role that the FBI played and specifically the efforts of First Director, J Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen) to prevent the formation of a cohesive black liberation movement in the US.
Despite Hampton being the main character, the narrative is centered around the story of William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield), a petty criminal arrested for the grand theft auto of a vehicle and impersonating an FBI agent. To avoid prison time, O’Neal agrees to go undercover and infiltrate the Panthers as an informant. Not long after O’Neal joins the Party he quickly rises in the organisation, becoming Director of Chapter security and Hampton’s bodyguard.
Viewers may be understandably wary going into this film, expecting the usual contradictions of a Hollywood film recreating the account of a revolutionary communist with a watered-down plot to sanitise Hampton’s revolutionary image for the capitalist mainstream. Although the writers could have delved deeper into Hampton’s Marxist and Leninist ideologies, and viewers should not expect to come away with a better understanding of communist ideology, the class struggle is portrayed very well and brings a truly authentic take on Hampton. The portrayal of the FBI and police force is brilliant in how they are exposed for what they really are: a corrupt, racist power that in other Hollywood films would never be the enemy.
The film depicts well the constant threat the BPP were under from Hoover’s FBI. Hoover was known for his anti-communism and hatred of black struggle. He stated the BPP was ‘the greatest threat to the national security of the country’. His hostility is illustrated well through the film in the graphic scenes of FBI raids on the BPP headquarters ordered by Hoover. The viewer is constantly prompted to question where the informer O’Neal stands. Although he is infiltrating the BPP, he is doing so as an oppressed black man who got caught in the sweeping net of the racist police regime and manipulated into conformity. His loyalty to the FBI is brought into question throughout, which distinctively highlights the criminality of the US police state.
On top of this the film is technically and stylistically brilliant. The overall theme of tension and trepidation that runs throughout the film keeps the viewer completely engaged. The writers did a good job of balancing the revolutionary subject and the police state’s tireless efforts to destroy it. You will struggle to find a better performance than Daniel Kaluuya’s depiction of Hampton: truly captivating.
‘You can kill the revolutionary but, you can’t kill the revolution… The revolution isn’t a single person, it is a culminative, unified effort of the masses.’
Judas and the Black Messiah has come at an important time, when young people are looking to challenge the vicious racism of the capitalist system. People around the world are looking to educate themselves on topics of racial injustice and oppression and looking for socialist and communist politics outside of the conforming capitalist parliamentary system. The film’s accuracy makes it accessible for anybody new to the Panthers, the black liberation struggle in the US and politics as a whole, or casual film lovers who are just looking for spectacular acting and a good plotline. This film is a must-watch for anybody interested in the BPP movement and the civil rights movement. The struggle of the Panthers, which many of them were killed for, is as relevant and urgent today as it was then.
Harvey MacFarlane
Readers can watch this film for only £6.50 as part of South London FRFI’s anti-racist online film festival: tinyurl.com/FRFIfilmfestival
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 282 June/July 2021
