'Judas And The Black Messiah' A Review

Judas And The Black Messiah is a drama/thriller quasi-biopic about Illinois Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton(Daniel Kaluuya) and the Party member/FBI informant Bill O'Neal(Lakeith Stanfield) who was key in Hampton's assassination. The film takes place in the two years(or so) prior to Hampton's murder, with equal focus on Hampton in his journey to expand the scope and breadth of the Black Panthers and their struggle and O'Neal as he gets deeper into the FBI's pocket and works his way into and up the Black Panther organization.

Kaluuya puts in a truly marvelous turn as Hampton, confident and grounded, driven but relentlessly positive, sweet and emotional at times and at others fiery, passionate and unwavering, like the real Hampton, he's incredibly inspiring and clearly singular. It underscores the absolute tragedy of his murder and further highlights the repugnant, illegal, anti-American acts of the FBI during that time. Stanfield's job is much more complicated, his motives, his feelings, his loyalties are opaque for basically the entire film, whether that was acting choice or determined by the script its somewhat bewildering. With how much time is spent on Stanfield's character, presumably to play up the crime/thriller aspect of the story(a la The Departed) and to elucidate the other side of the situation ie the pressure/threat of jail time leveled at him in order to force him to inform it still doesn't pay particular dividends because we never actually get to know the character and therefore his internal/external machinations don't carry much weight. Additionally O'Neal himself was 17 when he was entrapped by the FBI and both Kaluuya and Stanfield are basically playing their ages(signficantly older than their characters) which further muddles the waters as far as motivation. It's a solid supporting cast particularly Dominique Fishback as Deborah Johnson Hampton's girlfriend, it makes you wonder what a straight-up Hampton bio-pic would look like with more time given to Kaluuya and Fishback, the big issue in the cast is Martin Sheen's make-up as J. Edgar Hoover.

A solid production doesn't quite make up for the gross oversight of it's shooting location, subing Cleveland, OH for Chicago, IL, which seems particularly egregious given Hampton's influence, legacy, and connection to the Windy City. But that's a digression probably easily overlooked by non-Chicago residents. Visually it's rich, an effective score raises the tensions but doesn't dominate, and subtle period costumes immerse you in this world and struggle. Overall inspired casting and an excellent production work to tell a story that needs to be told and resonates deeply in our current cultural moment. But the limited temporal focus and splitting that between Hampton and O'Neal still leaves a void for a focused Hampton-centric biopic.

An inspiring, relevant, tragic story with a powerhouse performance from Kaluuya.

Currently streaming on HBO Max.

See It.