What I think about BlacKkKlansman

Directed by Spike Lee

Based on the memoir Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth

Starring John David Washington as Ron Stallworth, Adam Driver as Philip 'Flip' Zimmerman, Laura Harrier as Patrice Dumas, and Topher Grace as David Duke

Released in 2018

The film is loosely based on the true story of Ron Stallworth, the first black detective in the Colorado Springs area, who worked with his partner to expose the town's local KKK branch in the late 70s.

The film's strongest point is its acting. Washington and Driver are stellar, really showing their skills in the high-tension situations the film presents them with (for Washington, all the talking on the phone scenes and the end when he's about to get arrested; for Driver, the basement scene with Felix stands out the most).

Kwame Ture: If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am for myself alone, who am I? If not now, when? And if not you, who?

Changing some things from Stallworth's original telling of the story was a sore spot for some film critics, but I don't really have a problem with most of it. Making the Flip character (who did not exist in real life, though seems to be a blend of the officers referred to as Chuck and Jim in the memoir) Jewish so he had some skin in the game made the story more thematically coherent; adding a racist and antagonistic cop did too, and his comeuppance is suitably satisfying; Ron having a  w o k e  black girlfriend makes sense for the film's purpose. And then there's some changed aspects which are so egregious that any one alone should be enough for the film to drop the whole 'based on a true story' thing. The attempted bombing of the black student's union never happened; Ron's motivations were not nearly as high as in the film (he joined the police academy because he thought it would lead to being a gym teacher); and, clearly the most unforgivable change, real life Ron Stallworth says that his afro at the time was about an inch shorter than portrayed. For shame, Spike Lee, for shame!

In all seriousness, I'd compare it to The Social Network, which never purported to be a true story; it used real people and real events to tell a mostly fictitious story. This film could've done well to do something similar in that regard.

If you take the scenes by themselves instead of parts of a whole, several of them are really, really good. Ron's discussion with Patrice about films with the posters flying up on screen is nice. Flip arriving at the last moment to stop Ron getting shot by the cops is satisfying. Ron revealing himself to David Duke is hilarious. The cuts between the Klan meeting and the Black Power gathering and the chants of "Black power!" and "White power!" really sums up the theme of the film.

Morris: You think you're hot shit. But you're nothing but a cold fart.

Easily the worst aspect of this film, the thing that knocks it down several pegs at least in my book, is its tone. Or, to be more precise, all dozen of its tones. It's all over the bloody place. One moment it's a political drama, then a buddy comedy, then a crime thriller, then a documentary, then a blaxploitation parody, then... it's tonal whiplash, back and forth, serious then silly, for two hours.

And that's where it really falls apart for me. BlacKkKlansman appears to know what it's doing for a good while. Ron is a centrist character caught in a tug-of-war between the moderate aspects of two violent extremes which appear (at least on the surface) to be two sides of the same coin (with the actual difference being that the KKK is privileged white people who portray themselves as oppressed just to be violent, and the Black Power movement is filled with people who are actually oppressed). The film has some really clever aspects, like the meta-commentary about black representation in film, whether it be blaxploitation or films made by white people, and that all ties in nicely with Ron's own struggle between being a member of an overwhelmingly white law force and the more raw, personal fight of the Black Power movement. And right when it feels like it's going somewhere, it lobs an overly stylised ending at us, followed by using Charlottesville footage and interview clips of David Duke and Donald Trump to beat you over the head with its point and saying what any schmuck with a Twitter account can: Trump is a nazi, the KKK are in power, and the American right is full of ignorant extremists. It then not-so-subtly calls for a race war. It throws it all away for something everyone has heard a thousand times.

Flip: I'm not risking my life to prevent some rednecks from lighting a couple sticks on fire.
Ron: This is the job. What's your problem?
Flip: That's my problem. For you, it's a crusade. For me, it's a job.

This is only semi-related to the film, but I want to talk about the 2019 Oscars a little. Spike Lee turned up dressed in Do The Right Thing references (actually just looking like Waluigi), the film he was last nominated for an Oscar for, but which lost to Driving Miss Daisy. He (along with three other people) won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, and even though it was split between four people, Spike Lee took the entire speech time to perform what was either a very awkwardly written speech or slam poetry. Anyway, when Green Book won Best Picture, he stormed out. I can only assume this is because Green Book has the same basic premise as Driving Miss Daisy. Priceless.

All in all, BlacKkKlansman isn't that bad. It's the knowledge that it could've been so much better that hurts. 6/10.