Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman" has reaffirmed the genius of the producer. The movie follows in the footsteps of "Malcom X". BlacKkKlansman highlights the contemprary racial issues in America, the way Malcom X did for the 60's. The real hero, Ron Stallworth, played by John David Washington, the first black officer to work for the Colorado Springs Police Department, who launched a covert investigation into the Ku Klux Klan planning criminal acts of violence, is a role model.
He and the White jewish officer, Flip Zimmerman, played by Adam Driver he sent in his place, balance their duty to the nation with the moral obligations and the realities of Black and Jewish people in America. The movie is an adaptation of Ron Stallworth’s memoir, an account of the undercover operation (see trailer here). Ron Stallworth succeeded in becoming a card-carrying Klan member, and still has the card.
Some of the most poignant scenes are the conversations with the white KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, the speech by Black Panther Leader Stokely Carmichael, played by Corey Antonio Hawkins, the Colorado Klansmen praising the exploits of their predecessors while watching the lynching of Black men and the original "The Birth of a Nation" movie , a group of black students and activists intendly listening to an old man, played by Harry Belafonte, recounting his testimonies wabout witnessing the lynching of his best friend in Texas around the time “The Birth of a Nation” was playing in theater.
As I was watching the movie, I was reminded of the contemporary conversations going on in America and around the World, around the issues faced by African Americans, people of color, Jewish people, and other people in similar situations around the World.
The movie speaks eloquently to the actual moments, the dynamics, and humanity in situations where one must make tough choices, between their own immediate interests and the right thing to do.
A movie to watch.
