Judas and the Black Messiah is a biographical and feature film directed by Shaka King and starring Le Keith Steinfeld and Daniel Kalua.
At first glance at the title, many viewers may be confused, thinking that this is a film with religious themes, but in fact, it is not, of course, it is not related to religion at all. The film reviews from a personal perspective a black affirmative action movement set off by the "Black Panther Party" in the 60s and 70s of the last century.
The "Judas" in the title refers to William O'Neill, an undercover agent sent by the FBI to the Black Panther Party; "Black" refers to the American colored people represented by black people; "Messiah" is transliterated from Hebrew, and later translated into English as "Christ", meaning "anointed" or "savior". The "Black Messiah" refers to One of the leaders of the Black Panther Party who led the black Americans in the affirmative action movement, Fred Hapton.
To understand this movie, we must first understand the background of the story: the left-wing ideology of the 60s and 70s of the last century swept the world from east to west:
In China, the Cultural Revolution was in full swing; in France, a student-based social movement with socialist ideas as the program and demanded idealized reforms; and in the United States on the other side of the Pacific, the "New Left Movement" was born from the "Beat Generation" that experienced World War II, of which the anti-racial equal rights movement was one of the mainstream.
As a socialist country in the far East, China became the perfect "other" image imagined in the minds of Western youth at that time. In order to oppose the decadent and rigid capitalist system, Western youth have regarded socialism as the antidote to their own countries.
At that time, as the leader of the socialist countries in the East, Mao Zedong and his Mao Zedong Thought and Mao Zedong quotations were also regarded as the guidelines of countless Young People in the West with the ideal of change.
For example, fred, the protagonist of the film, the chairman of the Black Panther Party, teaches his party members with Mao Zedong's "war is a bloody politics, politics is a bloodless war" and "power comes out of the barrel of a gun", and deeply realizes that winning the hearts and minds of the people and the people is the key to the success of the revolution.
The Black Panther Party is a black-American society founded in 1966 by Huy Newton and Searle, who tried to win the hearts and minds of the people by mass organization and community service in order to practice the theory of "people's war" inherited from Mao Zedong Thought.
Providing free breakfasts for children in black neighborhoods, setting up health care stations, and educating community residents politically in the form of rallies hopes to pressure the U.S. government to make concessions on affirmative action by uniting a broad and vulnerable group.
Of course, the U.S. government does not like any form of resistance, and the FBI (FBI) has long noticed this black organization with momentum. They also followed the usual practice, installing their own eyeliner in the Black Panther Party, gathering intelligence at all times, and keeping a close eye on the every move of the black civil society.
William O'Neill was one of the FBI informants. He was a black man and a car thief, but he always liked to threaten other black people by impersonating FBI agents in order to blatantly hijack their cars.
A failed car theft allows O'Neill to meet real FBI agent Mitchell, who tells him that impersonating agents is enough to put him in jail for 6 and a half years, but if he is willing to join the Black Panther Party as his informant, he can not only avoid prison, but also live a stable and carefree life after the mission is completed.
O'Neill accepted the FBI's call-up, got into the car Mitchell gave him, volunteered to join the Black Panther Party, and became Vice President Fred's full-time driver and right-hand man. After a series of events, Fred also became more and more trusting of O'Neill.
In the Windy City of Chicago, in addition to Fred's Black Panther Party, there is another black gang called the Crown Gang and a church organization that fights for the rights of white people living at the bottom of society. Before Fred came to Chicago, the three forces had basically no contact, and even if they did, they only stayed at the level of mutual exclusion and attack to clarify their respective territories.
But after Fred's arrival, he fully carried forward the concept of "uniting and mobilizing the people" in Mao Zedong Thought, and through his eloquence, he moved with affection and reason, let the Crown Gang provide arms support for himself, and attracted poor white people from the bottom to join to enhance the diversity of his affirmative action movement.
As Fred grew stronger, the FBI was still reluctant because they were just practicing public welfare actions such as providing free lunches for children and building medical service stations. Even though there is a large amount of eyeliner to provide them with internal intelligence of the Black Panther Party, they are unable to do so because they have no evidence.
Finally, the FBI couldn't hold its breath, and they arrested Fred for stealing $70 of ice cream, where he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Although Fred appealed further in prison, at least the Black Panther Party will be left leaderless for the time being.
At the same time, white police drivers stepped up their harassment and provocations against black community residents in an attempt to lure Black Panther party members into action to justify the police's next move. Finally, a Member of the Panther Party shot and injured the police after witnessing his compatriot being unjustifiably harassed by the police. Seizing the opportunity, the police immediately surrounded the headquarters of the Black Panther Party and engaged in a shootout with its members. After expelling all the members of the headquarters, the police blew up the area with gasoline barrels.
In this round, on the surface, it seems that the police won, but in fact they provoked public indignation. The entire population of Chicago, enraged by the police's injustice against blacks, volunteered to help the Panther Party rebuild its headquarters. Fred became famous for going to jail, and more people admired his spirit.
The FBI's side has also resorted to more insidious and bottomless tactics, such as planting an eyeliner in the New York division of the Black Panther Party, letting him preemptively attack internally, and planting another innocent person who is an undercover agent installed by the police.
After killing him, he escaped from here to the next Black Panther Party division. And this is a serial plan designed by the FBI, because then every Black Panther's headquarters is legally searched by the police for harboring fugitives.
But it wasn't long before the Supreme Court heard Fred's appeal and acquitted him, and as the president of the Black Panther Party returned to Chicago and the long-suffering disintegration of him, the FBI ordered Fred to be killed.
Mitchell ordered his informant O'Neill to put sleeping pills on fred's drink the night he returned, and O'Neill, reluctantly, was forced to go too far to turn back and had to do so.
At 4 a.m. on October 4, 1969, a team of heavily armed police officers and FBI agents attacked Fred's home and killed him in bed. The Black Panther movement took a heavy hit in Chicago. O'Neill's undercover mission ended, he left the Black Panther Party, ran a gas station, and lived the comfort and carefree life he had dreamed of with a debt of conscience.
It wasn't until 1989, when he was interviewed for the documentary "Unwavering Determination" for the first time, that he made this old story public. When the host asked O'Neill how he would tell his son about it, he looked around and said that his deeds would be judged by history. When the documentary aired on January 15, 1990, O'Neill committed suicide.
Kellers Stanfield and Daniel Kalua contributed great performances to the film. Kellers vividly shows O'Neill's struggling, fearful, and confused inner state in the Black Panther Party.
At first, he was dismissive of the harsh management and political education within the Black Panther Party, but gradually, in the events he participated in, he saw Fred's firm will and lofty ideas for the rights of his fellow black people, and his actions seemed even more despicable and shameful in comparison.
But there is no regret medicine to take in the world, if he unmasks himself now, what awaits him is the pursuit of both the FBI and the Black Panther Party, and in order to survive, he has to play this drama to the end.
And Daniel, who is also very worthy of his Oscar for best actor, shows the unparalleled speech of Black Panther Party Chairman Fred to the fullest.
The historical Fred is undoubtedly a speech genius, and when asked if he had prepared for a long time before going on stage, he said that he had always spoken out of print and spoke directly to his heart. The speech in the film that fully combines black rap elements is extremely contagious even in the film.
The entire film is based on the real events that occurred in Chicago in 1969, and the film as a whole is relatively good, stringing together the key time nodes in the causes and consequences of the whole event. The only fly in the ointment is that the FBI seems to have a little more of the scenes.
Overall, it is still an excellent biographical film. Although the theme is a review of history, it also forms a dialogue with the serious racial problems facing American society today.