Jack Goes Confidential: ‘BLACKkKLANSMAN’—You Can’t Make This Stuff Up!

BLACKkKLANSMAN ranks right up there as the ULTIMATE CON…

Had things not gone down the way they did in the late 1970s we’d be tearing it apart for being too improbable. But this is an incredible and outrageous TRUE story!

The setting is Colorado Springs where the local police department has just hired Ron Stallworth as its first African-American detective.

He’s perfectly portrayed by John David Washington.

Stallworth’s first assignment: To go undercover, infiltrate and expose the local chapter of the KKK.

And how he did it as a BLACK man is something to behold!

In simple terms he answers a Klan recruitment ad in the local newspaper. And yes, he sounds white on the call.

And fellow (Jewish) cop Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) stands in for Stallworth whenever it comes to a face-to-face meetings. (We all know how well Klan members like the company of Blacks and Jews—NOT!)

So it goes with ongoing investigations by the Klan by Stallworth—which almost includes a lie detector test.

Somehow the Ron/Flip facade works and soon the police department has its own credible guy as an insider.

Believe it or not, that includes a personal meeting with the Grand Wizard himself, David Duke (Topher Grace) who is impressed with Colorado Springs’ newest Klan recruit.

That’s pretty well the key deception of the storyline.

There are numerous other ins-and-outs adding fuel to the bizarre  undercover story that I won’t go into.

But they all add in their own way to this Grand Prize winning Spike Lee Joint at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in France.

A FEW MORE OBSERVATIONS…

* The film is based on Ron Stallworth’s autobiographical book Black Klansman.

* As heavy as the subject matter comes across in reviews, director Spike Lee has kept the film’s pacing and interactions on a light basis—which may not be appreciated by all moviegoers.

(Moments of laughter throughout the picture seemed to upset a couple of critics at our screening.)

* Alec Baldwin spewing racist nonsense in a news recreation hits the nail on the head.

* And congrats also to one of the film’s co-writers. He, of course, being KU Film and Media Studies professor Kevin Willmott who previously was associated with movies like CHI-RAQ, C.S.A.-THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA and NINTH STREET.

* Finally there’s the co-producing collaboration here of Spike Lee with Jordan Peele who just last year hit it big with GET OUT! The two have done extremely well here.

BLACKkKLANSMAN—Spike Lee’s impressive take on the ultimate con.

My grade: A-

JACK GOES TO THE MOVIES Friday mornings at 9:50 a.m. during Kansas City’s Morning News on 98.1 FM, KMBZ.

http://www.mb-kc.com/
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4 Responses to Jack Goes Confidential: ‘BLACKkKLANSMAN’—You Can’t Make This Stuff Up!

  1. chuck says:

    Another gem from the most overrated director in Hollywood history. Rotten Tomatoes has his “joint” around 97% positive. I would imagine, that criticizing a Spike Lee movie in Hollywood would get you run out of town faster than a Japanese Bullet Train could get George Clooney out of Italy when Illegal Immigrants invaded his “Space”.

    The only Spike Lee movie (“Joint”, isn’t that clever…) I have seen, was “Do The Right Thing”. Spike’s heroes, are of course, violent, entitled, “victims” of a white owned Pizza Parlor that exists in an inner city. The solution to Italian intransigence ,

    — (In this “Joint”, in this joint, the Italian owner, shockingly enough, has a surfeit of pictures of Italians on the wall and a paucity of pictures of black people. Cause…, you know, what you want to see, what you expect when you enter an Italian Restaurant is Martin Luther King, Huey Newton, Nat King Cole and Lil’ Wayne adorning the walls. Slavery. See what I did there?)

    and disagreements concerning the decor, is to burn the muthafukkin place down.

    Not, open your own restaurant. Not enjoy the pizza, or, not if you don’t like it, but, again, burn the fuckin place to the ground, because, of course, you, as a black person are pissed off about Italians having pictures of Italians on the wall in their Italian Pizza.

    POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!

    Instead of another bullshit movie that is supposed to reaffirm our totally justified and logical fear of KKK members in white sheets behind every bush, stone and tree, armed with burning crosses and rocks gathered from the destruction of evil Confederate General’s statues, maybe Spike should have done a sequel about the evils of “Food Deserts” where Pizza Parlors used to thrive.

    If Spike Lee wasn’t black, his movies wouldn’t get a C in Community College Film Class.

  2. jack p. says:

    Chuck, you’ve left me speechless.
    But I tell you what. Head to your local theatre and skip the Coke and Popcorn line.
    Get yourself a couple of stiff drinks instead and watch this movie.
    (You can get those now at a lot of theatres you know)
    God knows you may just enjoy it—WITHOUT being preached at by Spike Lee.

    • chuck says:

      I loved film class in college. One of the things my professor told me to remember when watching a movie, is that everything you see in a movie, with few exceptions, is there on purpose. This was, he said, part of the message, emotion or ideas that the writers, director, etc, were trying to express.

      90 or so seconds into a Spike Lee movie, the mystery is over. I get it, he hates whitey and the “white patriarchy”. Good, I hate him and guys like him too.

      Ironically, or, maybe not, I work with film crews all the time, on far more pedestrian efforts than our betters in Hollywood. Training films. Don’t go too far up the ladder, drive too fast, that kind of thing. Every one of them is Citizen Kane compared to Lee’s warmed over shit.

      Thanks for the offer Jack, but asking me to go see a Spike Lee movie reminded me, that I need to go see the Dentist.

      Have a great day.

      🙂

  3. chuck says:

    One last thing, Spike might kick your ass too.

    https://www.esquire.com/new

    “I give interracial couples a look. Daggers. They get uncomfortable when they see me on the street.”

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