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Topic: Re:BlacKkKlansman
Posted by: Joe Conneely
Date/Time: 27/08/18 15:08:00

Well the good news is that it is much better than his prior dire remake of the classic “Oldboy” but overall this film for me is not top flight Spike Lee, despite all the rave reviews it seems to be currently getting.

Based on a true story of a black undercover cop who in the 1970s gets accepted into the Klu Klux Klan based on phone calls made as an undercover cop, the lead role is played impassively by John David Washington, son of Denzel Washington, who has long been one of Lee’s favourite actors. With a Jewish colleague (played deadpan by Adam Driver) impersonating him when he has to physically attend meetings with the KKK, the story itself might have made for an interesting police buddy drama given the KKK’s hatred of Jews and Blacks.



However this film is primarily a vehicle for Lee seeking to make statements about the history of racism and the KKK in the USA plus the growth of Black Power in the 1970s up to the current US president and recent tragic events in Charlottesville. For about the first half you are not sure whether you are watching a black comedy (no pun intended) with a police procedural story underpinning it with lots of historical references (scenes intercut from “Intolerance”,  Gone with the Wind” plus numerous over flagged links to 1970s blaxploitation movies).

Then for the second half, more parallel running of a terrorist type plot developing alongside spoofing of the KKK members and attitudes leads to the original story climax. That then morphs into an ending around more recent events as Lee tries to ensure you leave the cinema having got his point.



Sadly I left feeling I had seen a poor propaganda film patched onto a true police story that on its own, as written in this film script, was probably not that great. Spike Lee may have a lot of anger in him about US history and recent events but this film does not provide much understanding of how and why such hatred persists.


Entire Thread
TopicDate PostedPosted By
Film Reviews 201828/01/18 15:25:00 Susan Kelly
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      Re:Re: Phantom Thread04/02/18 15:54:00 Susan Kelly
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                     Re:Re:Re:Re:The Heiresses (Las herederas)04/09/18 17:07:00 Susan Kelly
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      Re:BlacKkKlansman27/08/18 15:08:00 Joe Conneely
         Re: Cold War02/09/18 13:41:00 Joe Conneely
            The Children Act05/09/18 11:09:00 Alastair Banton
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