Tropic Sprockets / Black Klansman

Bby Ian Brockway

The auteur Spike Lee has a sharp and complex film “BlacKkKlansman” based on the memoir of Ron Stallworth. Stallworth was the first black officer in the Colorado Springs police department. In the early 70s, he became a detective and investigated the KKK.

Right from the first moment, the film is vigorous and pointed. A clip from “Gone With the Wind” is shown. Upon seeing the famous epic, Malcolm X once remarked that he felt like “crawling under the rug.” Then the director shows us the first xray of hate when, a Dr. Kennebrew Beaureguard (Alec Baldwin) is shown with the offensive silent film “The Birth of a Nation” streaming across him. The pictures projected on his face give this man a zombie like pox that mirrors his stuttering rant. Indeed, Beaureguard is diseased.

Then we are out West. This is Colorado. Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) applies for a police department job. After a short time in the records room, he gets a job taping Stokely Carmichael of the Black Panthers. After successfully completing that assignment, Stallworth gets an idea to infiltrate the Klan. He jokes that he has the skill for speaking King’s English as well as “jive” (the film “Sorry To Bother You” pokes fun at this) and he fools a Klan member on the phone. To complete the ruse, he enlists the help of Zimmerman (Adam Driver) for face to face meetings.

Zimmerman meets a gang of repulsive snarling bigots who vomit and spit racism and hatred. Stallworth and Zimmerman agree to press on regardless, despite intensified vile talk, in the hope of jailing the incendiary folk.

This is a stellar performance from both Washington and Driver who are close to perfection. The cinematography is excellent and the camera angles are provocatively askew, portraying an America thrown upside-down in racism and violence.

Lee does not withhold any punches, nor should he, and the dialogue of the Klansmen proves to be as vile as any revolting torture film. Especially poisonous and pathetic are the speeches of Felix (Jasper Pääkkönen) and the drunken and bloated Ivanhoe (Paul Walter Hauser).
Stallworth is in an existential position. The activists label him as a hypocrite pig and the cops taunt him with slurs. He can satisfy no one except himself. The soundtrack is also haunting and rhythmic, while also paying tribute to the cinema of the 1970s, specifically the “Shaft” films featuring Richard Roundtree. The Shaft influence can also be seen in the appearance of Stallworth clothed in leather.

The film treads uneasy yet thoughtful ground, being an analysis of horror one minute and almost a comedy the next as Spike Lee shows David Duke (Topher Grace) to be an ignorant imbecile in trying to talk coherently on the subject of accents.

Lee’s perspective is one hundred percent correct: racial stereotypes and talk might be absurdist to some in its mania but also sickening and infectiously toxic to ignorant minds, bringing only hate. It is a virus.
And in 2018, we are not free of this infection. The last scenes are a shock, showing footage of our millennial America in such a way that it is visceral and stabbing. Cries, blood and pain fill the screen in abrupt jolts. These moments caused me real discomfort and I certainly will not be the only one.

“BlacKkKlansman“ is Spike Lee’s best film since “Bamboozled” (2000) and it is a percussive call to action.

Write Ian at [email protected]

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