Assignment #5: Movies

        In such a month as Black History month, I could not think of a better way to start my Valentine’s Day weekend of festivities. The film made its way to the HBOMAX subscription service in February of 2021, just before Valentine’s Day. The film Judas and The Black Messiah is  rated-R and is classified as a Biography/Dram. My initial review of the film was that I enjoyed it as well as the exposure that the film gave. The film gave insight into the Black Panther and the and how on how the  activist leader of the party, Fred Hampton, was targeted,  taunted and murdered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the local law enforcement. The film also showed the  positive impact that the Party had not only within their con communities but also to unite other organized groups to make a greater impact. 

        I was pleased with how the movie took time to incorporate the core elements that the Panthers sought to uphold. We got to see how they had time to serve and ensure that they could prepare breakfast for the children in their community. Education was another element that the Party sought to spread to the masses, not just book knowledge but making people aware of their rights and what to do when in an encounter with law enforcement. Not only that but we see on various occasions throughout the we get to see how the Panthers were watchmen for their communities due to the frequent occasions when African Americans were the targets of police harassment and brutality simply for the color of their skin or “fitting the description”. This unfortunate treatment is still being down to this day in 2021 by law enforcement especially in communities occupied by black and brown people.

        Although I did enjoy the film and it received a 96% satisfaction rate on Rotten Tomatoes, there were some elements of the film that I thought could have been a bit better. The cast did a phenomenal job in this movie and some of them are well known for large roles in other films, but the age differences were quite significant. Soon after the release of the film by HBO an article written by Oprah Winfrey was published comparing the cast members to the actual people that they portrayed in the movie, more so as a means to educate and not ridicule the film.  The role of Fred Hampton was played by Daniel Kaluuya, Hampton was murdered at the age of 21 and Daniel just turned 32 years old. The FBI informant in the party William O’Neal was played by Lakeith Stanfield is 29 years old, but O’Neal was just 17 years old when he began working for Agent Mitchell. Hampton’s pregnant girlfriend, Deborah Johnson, who laid in bed next to him as their home was being shot up by police and she watched the father of the unborn child passed away. She was only 19 years old on that traumatic day. The American actress Dominique Fishback who played the character is 29 years old. Deborah Johnson is now 70 years old and gave birth to Fred Hampton II who is now 51 years of age. 

        This is not to take away from the phenomenal acting and job well done by the cast, but only to ensure that people understand that this nation wide party had leaders that were young and ambitious, practically babies that had such influence and drive that the FBI saw and made it their mission to put an end to it. This is why people must take it upon themselves to do their research. I thought that the film could have given more insight into the other groups that we saw the Panthers reach out to solidarity against their shared common enemy, the governmental systems leading the endless cycle of oppression, poverty, and dependency. The FBI had already acknowledged the influence that the Panthers had and knew that having them unite with other groups of people all looking to combat the same enemy, especially with the intermingling of races which was a big deal during that time period. However, to a certain extent, I was not surprised at the lack of dialogue in that area seeing this is still an ongoing battle that is still being fought in this country in 2021. Keeping that in mind, this is why these types of movies are necessary so that we as a people are able to learn from the past in order to keep the same events from happening again.