“Judas and the Black Messiah” (MA) *** and a half

THIS film memorialises a time in American history when law enforcement agencies and the Black Panther Party (BPP) were close to open warfare. 

The plot focuses on the Rainbow Coalition, a multicultural political organisation established in Chicago that initially included the Black Panthers, Young Patriots, Young Lords, and an alliance among Chicago street gangs to help end infighting and work for social change.

Worthy objectives, in any language. But FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen) identified the Coalition as a radical threat. Its founder was 20-year-old Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), chairman of the Illinois chapter of the BPP and deputy chairman of its national board. Hampton died aged 21 in his bed during a predawn raid at his Chicago apartment by a tactical unit of the state’s attorney’s office in conjunction with the Chicago Police Department and the FBI.

“Judas and the Black Messiah” tells the story of Hampton’s last months, from several perspectives – wife, family, political activism, official actions against him and Bill O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield). Aged 19, Bill was a petty crim, offered a deal by FBI operative Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons) – early release from prison in return for providing information about the coalition and the Panthers.

In 1946, Robert Graves published “King Jesus”, a fictional biography of Jesus. It’s not light reading, but it does put forward one concept of Judas Iscariot’s betrayal propounding a different view. The Gnostic Gospel of Judas, which the proto-orthodox church rejects as heretical, portrays Judas’s actions as done in obedience to instructions given to him by Jesus, and that he alone amongst the disciples knew Jesus’s true teachings.

So, has Judas Iscariot been wrongly getting a bad press for more than two millennia? I like to think that’s quite possible. Writer/director Shaka King has made a long (129 minutes) movie mirroring, in 21st century terms, events in Palestine forever remembered as the crucifixion of Jesus and the name Judas as an eponym for a betrayer. Is it a good movie?  More than most, an evaluation of that epithet will depend on the viewer. I’d like think the information I’ve given will help people make their own see/don’t see decision.

At Dendy, Palace Electric