Integrating law enforcement in Colorado Springs, Colorado is the first serving of the biographical, crime based, dark humor tale shared in the Spike Lee directed movie BlacKkKlansman (2018). The second serving delves into a law enforcement effort to become a member of the Ku Klux Klan. At the center of these 1972 events was Ron Stallworth, the first black officer of the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD). The film is inspired by Ron Stallworth‘s book Black Klansman: A Memoir.
John David Washington portrayed Ron Stallworth in BlacKkKlansman, with Stallworth applying for undercover work after tiring of harassment in the records room of the CSPD. Stallworth is assigned to infiltrate the organization of national civil rights leader Stokely Carmichael (born Kwame Ture), wherein Stallworth meets Patrice Dumas, president of the Black Student Union at Colorado College. Dumas is a fictionalized character for this movie. Laura Harrier portrayed Patrice Dumas.
Getting reassigned to the intelligence division shortly after the rally, Stallworth responds to an advertisement for a local division of the Ku Klux Klan. Having called the group and made successful contact with Walter Breachway, as portrayed by Ryan Eggold, Stallworth finds that he needs to meet with the chapter in person. Breachway too is fictitious, though the contact is legitimate. Having used his real name over the phone, Stallworth recruited Jewish colleague Philip ‘Flip’ Zimmerman, as portrayed by Adam Driver, to make the physical contact that interacts with the local chapter. Zimmerman is reportedly a real person, though presented fictionally in the movie as well as the book.
Felix Kendrickson has some initial suspicions of Zimmerman as Stallworth, promoting some sense of stress in the manifestation of the two police officers. Meanwhile, Zimmerman learns of the vague outlines of an attack from Klan member Ivanhoe while Stallworth seeks expedited membership with members of Louisiana. Contact with Louisiana leads to direct contact for Stallworth with head of the large Klan organization David Duke. Jasper Pääkkönen portrayed Kendrickson as Paul Walter Hauser portrayed Ivanhoe and Topher Grace portrayed Duke.
The contact with Duke leads him to come to Colorado Springs to induct Zimmerman as Stallworth into the local Klan chapter, coupled with a civil rights attack involving Connie Kendrickson, as portrayed by Ashlie Atkinson. The induction coupled with the planned attack against a civil rights rally leads to legitimate storytelling stress when Ku Klux Klan member Walker, as portrayed by Nicholas Turturro, remembers Zimmerman from an arrest in his past. The film’s messaging offers clear parallels between goals of justice and injustice between those seeking civil rights gains posed in contrast to goals of hate and harm to those unlike members of the Klan.
The political messaging of BlacKkKlansman clearly articulates injustice as it has existed overtime in the United States. The adding of context from the contemporary year of the movie’s release, with statements of racially based hate from David Duke and then president Donald Trump felt neither gratuitous nor sensational to me; the context felt necessary. The symbolism of the United States in black and white while simultaneously top-side-down evokes provocatively emotional content clearly stated and understood. The request to see this with the same emotion symbolized by the Klan seems inescapable. Accepting the statements and the tale as told by the movie, I grant BlacKkKlansman as directed by Spike Lee 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Matt Lynn Digital 