“BlacKkKlansman” Review

Adam Driver (Left) and John David Washington star in “BlacKkKlansman” as Flip Zimmerman and Ron Stallworth who enact an investigation into the Ku Klux Klan in 1972 Colorado.

It’s an undeniable fact that the biggest sin of America is it’s ever existing presence of bigotry and prejudice. While many movies exist portraying the history of racism in America, none are as poignant as the work of Spike Lee. Lee’s films often address the experiences of black Americans and, unlike films like “Driving Miss Daisy,” “The Help” and “Green Book,” show how racism very much exists in the present day. While set in the past, “BlacKkKlansman” is very much about today’s time period and is among Lee’s best films with incredible performances and an unbelievable plot that actually happened.

Set in 1972, the film is based on Ron Stallworth’s 2014 memoir of the same name. In the film, Stallworth (John David Washington) becomes the first black police officer in Colorado Springs and decides to investigate the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan with Stallworth communicating with the Klan over the phone and a white officer named Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) meeting with the group in person. As the investigation deepens, the pair discover a bombing plot by the Klan and move to stop the group from terrorizing the Colorado College Black Student Union.

The film opens with a propaganda film from the KKK with a “doctor” (Alec Baldwin) talking about how incredible the Southern Way of life was until activists like Martin Luther King Jr. came in and desegregation caused America to become a terrible place to live. While he speaks, clips from two films, “Gone With the Wind” and “The Birth of a Nation,” are played, both of which paint a revisionist portrait of the Antebellum South and makes the Confederacy look like a historical victim instead of the evil government that it was. Within the first few minutes, Lee shows the threat that Ron is fighting as well as ridicules the concepts of nationalism and white supremacy. 

What’s brilliant about this story is that Lee takes the conflict between the white nationalism of the KKK and the resistance of the Black Student Union and puts Ron in the middle of it. As a cop, Ron is surrounded by corruption and systemic racism with several cops in the department showing a prejudice towards black people by calling black inmates “toads.” 

The biggest offender of the force, Officer Landers (Fred Weller), not only exhibits racist behavior towards Stallworth but also has a track record of using his power as a police officer to attack and harass black people with Flip telling Ron that Landers shot a black kid. When Ron asks Flip and Jimmy (Michael Buscemi), a fellow cop investigating the Klan, why they don’t report him and prevent him from doing any more harm, they reply that Landers is part of the force and they have to stick together no matter what. Ron then asks his fellow officers how that makes them any different from the Klan.

John David Washington’s breakout performance is absolutely magnificent and he commands a lot of respect as he tries to take on the Klan as well as systemic racism from within the police force. Washington’s portrayal of Stallworth shows his heroism as Stallworth constantly was faced with the possibility of death by crossing the KKK. This film made Washington a star and his further work in “Malcolm and Marie” and “Tenet” has cemented him as a fantastic actor.

Ron’s relationship with Patrice (Left) encourages him to become more outspoken about fighting inequality within the police force.

Not only does Ron have to face down the Klan and the bigotry of fellow officers, he has to reevaluate his role in the fight for social justice. During the investigation, he begins to date Patrice (Laura Harrier), the president of the Black Student Union, who believes that the police system is unable to change. Since Ron is an officer, this relationship causes him to really think of how the system can be fixed and, while being optimistic about the future, acknowledges that true change is going to be difficult.

While a drama, there is quite a bit of humor within the film and this mainly stems from the brilliant six-word pitch that producer Jordan Peele told Spike Lee to get him to work on the film: “black man infiltrates Ku Klux Klan.” It’s pretty easy to draw comparisons between this film and the classic Dave Chappele sketch “Clayton Bigsby” about a blind black man who was raised white and is now the leader of the wite supremicist movement, saying the most laughably racist things. However, that sketch was a work of fiction and this film is very much based on a true story.

One of the funnier moments of the film involves Ron calling up KKK Grand Wizard David Duke (Topher Grace) to get his Klan membership processed. Over the course of several phone calls, Duke befriends Ron thinking that he’s a white man which only showcases how ludicrous Duke and his ideology really is. Every member of the Klan in the film seems very over-the-top in their hatred (which is actually pretty tame if you’ve ever known a racist) but they are legitimately threatening, especially when Flip constantly has to interact with them which puts his life on the line.

While Ron definitely has a mission outside of just investigating the Klan, Flip begins to realize that he has skin in the game as well since he’s Jewish, but constantly has to pass for a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant which begins to take a toll on him. Adam Driver really gets to shine as an actor in this film, especially when he has to pretend to believe all of the awful ideology of the Klan. When threatened at gunpoint by a psychotic member of the KKK named Felix (Jasper Paakkonen) who denies that the Holocaust even happened, Flip has to say that he thinks The Holocaust is one of history’s most beautiful events which shows just how committed he is to the investigation and to bringing down this group. 

What Lee makes quite clear is that the premise may be funny, but there is a real threat being addressed here and the threat is that these white nationalist organizations are moving away from the traditional cross burnings and robe-wearing and are trying to become mainstream. Instead of being called the Grand Wizard, David Duke prefers the term National Director and seeks to have himself and like-minded people in higher political office. 

(From Left) Director Spike Lee instructs Topher Grace and Adam Driver in how to authentically portray Klansman before shooting Flip’s “initiation” into the KKK.

“BlacKkKlansman” is not a film that will instantly be forgotten and Lee doesn’t want the viewer to walk away from the film without a sense of urgency. Two of the most powerful scenes in the film involve powerful speakers stressing the importance of fighting racism and white nationalism. The first is delivered by Kwame Ture a.k.a. Stokely Carmichael (Corey Hawkins) who delivers a speech that Ron attends while undercover talking about how we must fight racism and how racist cops who shoot unarmed black people must pay for their crimes. 

As the people in the crowd hang on every word, it becomes clear that the film is speaking directly to us and, with police brutality against black people still a rampant problem in America, it’s clear that we need to hear this and, as Lee likes to say in several of his films, “Wake Up!”

The second is delivered with incredible passion by Harry Belafonte who recounts the real-life lynching of Jesse Washington in 1916. Washington was accused of raping and murdering a white woman even though no evidence was brought forward to connect Washington to the crime. After being convicted by an all-white jury, Washington was murdered by a massive crowd in Waco, Texas. Belafonte then goes into history of the KKK’s rebirth following the release of the film “The Birth of a Nation.”

While this is going on, Lee juxtaposes the scene with Flip’s “induction” into the KKK and, as Belafonte tells the story to the Black Student Union, the Klansmen watch “The Birth of a Nation.” Lee cuts back-and-forth between Belfonte leading the union shouting “black power” while the Klansmen shout “white power” once again showing the battle between the oppressed and the oppressors. It’s easily one of the most unsettling parts of the film. 

Much like “Do The Right Thing,” Spike Lee doesn’t make racism seem like a thing of the past, but brings the story into the present and in a really powerful way. After a seemingly happy ending where the bombing plot of the Klan has been thwarted and Ron and Flip are heroes, Ron and Patrice see a cross burning outside his home. Lee then shows us footage of the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia where thousands of white supremacists, including David Duke, showed up to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. When counter protesters came to voice their dissent with the neo-Nazis, violent clashes instigated by the supremacists resulted in many injuries and the death of a counter protester named Heather Heyer. 

Unlike the film that won Best Picture that year, “Green Book,” “BlacKkKlansman” makes it abundantly clear that racism is not only still around but it has absorbed into the mainstream with several people in power and the media either supporting or abiding systemic racism. It’s a chilling ending that reminds us that we still have a long way to go and that the work of Ron Stallworth isn’t over. 

“BlacKkKlansman” isn’t a film that is meant to be easily swallowed, but it certainly is gripping in both its humor and its understanding of how racism affects our country. Much like Lee, it absolutely refuses to compromise which makes it one of the best films of both Lee’s filmography and of recent years.