Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

 
After being offered a deal from the FBI, William O'Neal goes undercover into the Black Panther Party to gather intelligence on the Chairman Fred Hampton.

Related Titles: The Trial of the Chicago 7, The Black Panthers, Selma

Rating: 8/10

By Rebecca

Going into this movie I wasn't too hyped, ONLY because this awards season we've seen a lot of the same subject, but as Leanne mentioned to me this may be because these events are 50 years ago and the documents are now declassified. The premise of this Fred Hampton biopic is that Bill O'Neal (Lakeith Stanfield), a petty criminal gets caught for car robbery. FBI agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons) cuts Bill a deal to stay out of prison, this deal is to be an FBI informant. The FBI specifically want information on Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) and the Black Panther Party. It was the late 1960s, where civil unrest was rife. Fred Hampton was 'the Chairman' of the BPP and he initiated alliances with other rival 'gangs' to unite the change in Chicago. Bill infiltrates the party becoming their Head of Security, and as Bill gets more involved, it means that the FBI are gaining more intelligence into Fred Hampton's life, while Bill gets a greater cash reward. 

The film starts off with real footage of news reels from these true events, setting the scene and getting the audience up to date with the state of play. It really doesn't mess around with getting into the storyline and it is very easy to follow. The pace is nice and flowing meaning you doing get bored. You get an insight into the Black Panthers and how they operate; their breakfast clubs for kids trying to heal a community, a race, who have been oppressed and cold blooded killed in a country preaching 'freedom'. While I don't think that they ever wanted to become violent, I feel that they had no choice but to take the war to the 'pigs' (police). 

I had seen that Daniel Kaluuya won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, so I was expecting some great, and great he was. I just sat back and was in awe of his performance. He became Fred Hampton, everything about him embodied Fred, his accent, his delivery of words, his demeanour, just everything. He has a few speeches, but one of those speeches when he was addressing his open eared audience, I literally had goosebumps. To inspire people, to bring about revolutionary change, takes someone with passion and purpose. To think that Fred Hampton was only 21 years old is remarkable. However his 'radical revolutionary' was not going to get by the FBI.

Bill O'Neal as a person was very interesting. Yes he was obviously trying to save himself and thats why he became an informant but you see a lot of slight changes in him. At first he didn't really support the Panthers, but by the end you know he was supporting the revolution even with a wire recording their conversations. Lakeith Stanfield is slowly becoming one of my favourite actors. While playing Bill, Lakeith was able to show how 'on edge' his character was. There were many moments where Bill was suspecting that he was made and that nervous, anger and posture he was able to capture. 

As well as the brilliant performances, look and feel of the picture was all there. Suddenly you were immersed within the Black Panthers, the 1960s, and inner US city life. It was an educational experience, on a topic in which I will always want to learn about. You can still take some of these scenarios into life today in 2021. The fight for equality, rights and justice will go on, and Fred Hampton was a revolutionary. 

Rating: 8.5/10

By Leanne

As Rebecca said, this film follows a very similar theme to a lot of films this Award's season and the content is still so relevant to today. The film follows William O'Neal LaKeith Stanfield) as he agrees to become an undercover informant to clear his name after being caught boosting cars. His main target is chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya.)

The film opens, like so many others recently, with footage of true news events and then snippets of William O'Neal's interview. It doesn't waste anytime and jumps straight into the film and introducing O'Neal's scam to boost cars using a fake FBI badge. The premise of him becoming an undercover informant starts practically straight away and is introduced by FBI agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons.) I thought that overall, the film, had a good balance of action and discussion. It's easy to fall on the wrong side of this. For example, I loved The Trial of the Chicago 7 but did feel at times there was too much talking and not enough action. Judas and the Black Messiah hits the mark with this and has a good pace in keeping the film moving forward. 

As expected, the cast are fantastic. Stanfield is making a name for himself with great performances in recent films like The Photograph and (the bizarre) Sorry to Bother You. This film is no different and he play O'Neal fantastically. As the film progresses, O'Neal becomes more and more paranoid about being discovered and you can see this through the way Stanfield changes; constantly looking over his shoulder and talking himself out of tricky situations. Daniel Kaluuya was brilliant as Fred Hampton too. He embodies the passion of Hampton; his speechmaking scenes are particularly memorable and impressive. 

Something I found particularly interesting is the presentation of the Black Panthers VS their actual goals. Often, they are associated with inciting violence but in reality they were running breakfast clubs for kids and trying to open up accessible healthcare. The 'war' was brought to them and it's no surprise that things ended up the way they did. Fred Hampton's legacy is an impressive one. Despite being assassinated at the age of 21, the words that he spoke and the ideas that he spoke about have definitely continued. The words, "You can kill the revolutionary but you can't kill the revolution," literally transcend time. They applies to every fight for equality past, present and future.  

The ending is pretty sad. You ultimately know that O'Neal, despite the friendship that had formed between them, was going to betray Hampton. What is especially sad is that he didn't truly know what was going to come from what they had asked of him. Mitchell asked for blueprints but didn't go into detail on what was to come. O'Neal's eventual suicide on the day his interview aired on MLK day is tragic. The closing statements of the film state that on the day of Hampton's assassination, the police fired at least ninety shots and the BPP members fired one and yet many of the people present in that room were tried for murder.