BlacKkKlansman 2018
This movie, directed by Spike Lee, is getting some good reviews and the story itself is pretty amazing, but otherwise I didn’t know much about the movie except that it involved the first black law enforcement agent to infiltrate the KKK. Meanwhile, they pull in a lot of Klan rhetoric, some of which is still being used today, plus problems at the police department, and some black power rhetoric as well. It is kind of a witch’s brew that could potentially be pretty incendiary, but actually ends up fairly tame as an indictment of the KKK, who are a pretty easy target. Parts of the movie are even kind of slow, and it is a little scattershot (sometimes funny, sometimes pretty heavy, sometimes horrifying), but while the KKK members in the movie are mostly not that smart, there is still some suspense as undercover police officers are in danger from these very well armed guys. Ultimately the story is a little bit underwhelming, so maybe it is hard to give this a top grade, and current politics are right on the surface including including showing Donald Trump “violence on both sides” comment about the Charlottesville riot, so it isn’t for everyone. It is hard to do a movie about race without offending a lot of people, but I think this movie does a decent job, even showing some some white police officers in a positive light.
Written: 18 Aug 2018
Owned on: Blu-ray