THE REEL: BlacKkKlansman
Hired as the first black police officer in the Colorado Springs Police Department, most of Ron Stallworth's colleagues feel the need to show him that he doesn’t belong in “their” force. PHOTO | COURTESY
What you need to know:
- Hired as the first black police officer in the Colorado Springs Police Department, most of his colleagues feel the need to show him that he doesn’t belong in “their” force.
- Tired of the “desk job”, Ron confronts his boss Chief Bridges asking to be put on detective duty.
- One day, as Ron is going through the daily, he comes across an ad that is calling for recruits to a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.
- He calls and gets through to Walter Breachway, the president of the Colorado Springs chapter.
- When a meet-up is agreed upon, Stallworth recruits his Jewish co-worker Flip Zimmerman to act as him.
- Do you have feedback on this story? E-mail: [email protected]
Imagine thinking that you know it all and believing that you are indeed superior to others that are not from your race.
Now imagine being outsmarted by someone from a race that you thought was the lowest of lows, a person who was simply bored one day and decide to respond to an advertisement you had put up in a paper to recruit other racially bigoted candidates to your cause.
Stressful race relations is nothing new in the US, and indeed worldwide, but it is still interesting to look into the minds of people behind an openly public push to denigrate others based on the colour of their skin.
FIRST BLACK POLICE OFFICER
Based on “a crazy, outrageous, incredible true story”, BlacKkKlansman is the biographical comedy-drama film about retired cop Ron Stallworth (played by John David Washington) and his interaction with residents and fellow police officers in the predominantly white 1970s Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Hired as the first black police officer in the Colorado Springs Police Department, most of his colleagues feel the need to show him that he doesn’t belong in “their” force.
Procedurally, he’s first assigned at the records desk, but his colleagues don’t even look him in the eye when communicating with him. They also use a derogative term, toad, when referring to black suspects and only then look at him to see his reaction.
Tired of the “desk job”, Ron confronts his boss Chief Bridges (Robert John Burke) asking to be put on detective duty. Eventually, Chief Bridges gives him an assignment as an undercover operative to look into the black student union at Colorado College after they invite Kwame (Corey Hawkins), the national civil rights leader, to give a speech.
They believe the group is getting ready for armed violence against white folks in the town. Ron meets the president of the students’ union, Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier), who tells him about what the union stands for.
KU KLUX KLAN
One day, as Ron is going through the daily, he comes across an ad that is calling for recruits to a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.
He calls and gets through to Walter Breachway (Ryan Eggold), the president of the Colorado Springs chapter. When a meet-up is agreed upon, Stallworth recruits his Jewish co-worker Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) to act as him.
However, some of the more intolerant Klan members, especially Felix Kendrickson (Jasper Pääkkönen), are very sceptical about who gets to join them and they put Flip through a really hard time.
When Ron’s membership card takes too long to be processed, he decides to call the Klan’s national offices and gets his phone picked up by none other than the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke (Topher Grace), and he starts interrogating him about how he is able to differentiate the non-whites from whites while talking with them on phone.
He gives this whole lecture on how he can easily tell a person’s race on the phone, while not having the slightest notice that he is talking to a black man. This was a guy who made videos about the “science” behind the white man’s superiority over other races, yet he could not use his theories to discern whom he was speaking to.
ACTION-PACKED
BlacKkKlansman was released on August 10, to coincide with the one-year anniversary since last year’s white supremacist Unite the Right rally.
Spike Lee has always created picture that ignites the conscience and this one was no different. It’s not a preachy-chastisement picture either.
Packed with drama, action and comedy, you are bound to enjoy this movie from start to finish. John David Washington’s performance was outstanding, no doubt, but allow me to pick a slightly different favourite actor in Jasper Pääkkönen.
Yes, he is the worst of the racist pack but the intensity with which he displays that hate made his character very believable. He wasn’t my favourite actor in the sense that I liked him, but he played the character with so much gusto.
Because of mild violent scenes, crude and graphic language use at times, the movie would probably not be suited for viewership below 16 years.
***
Do you have feedback on this story? E-mail: [email protected]
