In the half century since the president of the Illinois Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton, was assassinated by the police in Chicago, no major Hollywood studio has released a film about his life – and only a small handful of narrative films have the revolutionary group he helped form.
But a new chapter begins with the debut of Shaka King’s “Judas and the Black Messiah”, an intricate double portrait of Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) and William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield), the FBI informant who betrayed him . Warner Bros. released the film simultaneously on HBO Max and in theaters.
In recent interviews, filmmakers and artists have described ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ as a welcome corrective to mainstream American films that portrayed the Black Panthers as one-dimensional military caricatures – or excluded them altogether from stories about the social upheavals of the 1960s. .
“In so many movies, the Black Panthers are eliminated or ignored,” said film critic Odie Henderson. ‘You see the raised fists, the guns, the leather jackets. This is fetishistic. But who were the Panthers? ‘
King tries to answer the question, emphasizing how Hampton and his Chicago peers see themselves as community organizers dedicated to ambitious social programs (including free meals for local children), grassroots activism, and a philosophy of black self-determination.
The film also highlights the charismatic Hampton’s natural skills as a leader, showing how he deftly forged the Rainbow Coalition, a multiracial alliance that fought economic injustice and police brutality, and the way he brought together local activists with rising speeches.
Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., A co-founder of the Illinois Black Panther Party, portrayed in the film by Darrell Britt-Gibson, said in a telephone interview that he hopes viewers will have an appreciation for the seriousness get. of the Panther Party’s ideology and philosophy. ‘
“The leaders of the Black Panther Party were dedicated social change agents,” who studied ways to rebuild society, Rush said, adding later, “We were not just a bunch of automatons who did not think.”
“Judas” is broad. In the words of Chicago Tribune columnist William Lee, the film ‘does not shy away from Hampton’s anti-police rhetoric or violence’, including a dramatic stance and a 1969 shootout that killed a party member and two police officers. .
“The film is not a rah-rah pro-Panther story or an anti-Panther story. It’s very steeped in historical understanding,” says David F. Walker, a comic book whose graphic novel about the Black Panther Party has been published. last month.
Hollywood has long been accused of misrepresenting American history, and directing the stories of white saviors, while underestimating or sometimes erasing the lives and legacies of black people, even in some films about the struggle for racial equality.
In recent decades, Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” (1992), Ava DuVernay’s “Selma” (2014) and other black-led projects have helped audiences better understand the icons of the civil rights movement. But few narrative features concentrated on the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, the revolutionary organization formed in 1966 in Oakland, California, by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, which eventually expanded into a national and international party.
Of course, there were notable exceptions. Mario Van Peebles followed the bow of the organization in ‘Panther’ (1995), which is not available on any streaming services; Tanya Hamilton told the story of a fictional former Panther (Anthony Mackie) in “Night Catches Us” (2010); and several award-winning documentaries explored the group.
But the more typical (and stereotypical) fictional portrayal of the Panthers, according to critics, appears in Robert Zemeckis’ Oscar-winning “Forrest Gump” (1994). In a short but eloquent scene, Tom Hanks’ title character attends a gathering of armed, leather-clad Black Panthers, all dazzling and slogan-like.
King, who was the director of episodes of comedy series such as’ High Maintenance ‘and’ Shrill ‘, expressed his dismay at the kind of sensational presentation and said in a recent interview with The Atlantic:’ I hate it. I hate it. They are always glowing. ‘
“They are caricatures,” says King, who co-wrote the “Judas” text with Will Berson (from a story by Keith and Kenny Lucas). “I think this caricature is often supposed to be a substitute for real entertainment.”
Walker, the comic book artist, pointed to ‘The Black Gestapo’ (1975) – an exploitative photograph of a black vigilante who started a ‘people’s army’ to defend the people of Watts – as a particularly ‘ridiculous’ example of the way it is popular. entertainment distorted the imagery of the Black Liberation Movement.
Henderson, who reviews movies for RogerEbert.com, said he believes “Judas” provides an important counterbalance, not only for older titles, but also for at least one sensational release that elects Oscar nominations this year: Aaron Sorkin ‘s docudrama ‘The Trial of Chicago 7.’
Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who was briefly the eighth co-accused in the trial of the same name, plays a supporting role in Sorkin’s film, and Hampton (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) is only briefly seen. In a narrative about the radicalism of the 1960s, the anti-capitalist aspirations and anti-racist goals of the Panthers seem an ‘afterthought,’ Henderson said.
Interestingly, several notable Hollywood personalities of the 1960s and 1970s – Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, “Easy Rider” producer Bert Schneider – supported the Panthers.
“In some ways, Hollywood liberals were instrumental in giving money to the Panther affair. But when it came to making movies about it, it was just easier to make a cartoon of them,” said Trey Ellis, a two-time Emmy. , said. -won screenwriter and novelist teaching at Columbia University.
And yet, given the way popular films shape our understanding of history, contemporary filmmakers have the opportunity to revisit the past and reevaluate the people and social movements that exist in contemporary America.
Ellis recalls that when he first wrote the screenplay for a 1995 HBO film about the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American fighter pilots in the Army Air Corps, very few movies or television programs dramatized their heroic deeds.
“When I was writing this, no one knew who the pilots were, although there were some documentaries,” Ellis said. ‘The fact that they’re now part of the American conversation about black history – I’m really proud of that.
“I think Judas and the Black Messiah will hopefully do the same,” Ellis said.