As Hollywood expands the scope of its storytelling to include more films with gender, race, and sexual orientation at their core, we as an audience will be exposed to new heights of emotional response. Judas and the Black Messiah is just such a film. Its impact is devastating.
As the film’s title suggests, it’s the story of the betrayal and ultimate assassination of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) who was involved in the Black Panther Party in Chicago in the late sixties. Kaluuya whose acting style thus far has been one of reductionism expands his range to include a role filled with anger and indignation. He delivers his words with an unbridled sense of outrage.
At times, the words and emotion are rendered so quickly, it’s hard to understand the actual dialogue, you are oftentimes left with just the feeling that the scene engenders. It keeps you on your toes and never lets you be an impartial and uninvolved viewer. You have to closely follow major and minor details to get the most out of the experience.
Powerful and condemning of the federal government in America in the late sixties, Judas and the Black Messiah show how little advancement the black struggle has made in the decades since. If it is the filmmaker’s intention to spark outrage at this miscarriage of justice and to install a sense of how much needs to change, then they have succeeded spectacularly.
Rob Hudson
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