‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ Review: A Tense Drama and Strong Feature Debut for Shaka King
“Judas and the Black Messiah” tells the story of FBI informant William O’Neal and his time in the Black Panthers in the 1960s, leading up to his betrayal of activist Fred Hampton who was assassinated by the FBI in 1969 using O’Neal’s intel. While the title and the film’s similarities to the famous Biblical betrayal are a bit hamfisted, the real-life parallels are eerily true enough. Despite being so passionate and focused in its scope, the film is strangely something of a Frankenstein’s monster, having been cobbled together from multiple projects from multiple writers and producers, with multiple directors being attached to it before dropping out for one reason or another. Eventually, the team settled on relative newcomer Shaka King to direct and assembled a crop of top level actors to deliver an excellent film.
The script is good, but Shaka King’s direction steals the show. In terms of story, the film plays out like a drama, but King’s direction elevates the material into a hard-hitting, fast-paced, stylish thriller. The film’s social and political messages are at the forefront here, augmented by clever usage of historical footage and audio, but King manages to make the bulk of the narrative gripping and intense to where there is never a dull moment.
The cast is also stuffed to the gills with great names including Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton, Martin Sheen as J. Edgar Hoover, and Under the Wheels favorite Lakieth Stanfield as William O’Neal, who all give very strong performances in addition to the slew of young rising stars who fill out the supporting roles, including Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders. The show stealers here, however, are the two leads. Kaluuya is sharp, charismatic, and naturalistic in his performance, granting Hampton the commanding presence befitting an icon of his stature without sacrificing the nuanced emotions and difficulty that he faces in his role as Chairman of Chicago’s Black Panther Party. Stanfield plays his compelling foil, a Judas character who joins the Panthers out of self-interest only to become attached to their ideology and leader. While Hampton is a fire hydrant of charisma, O’Neal is jittery, quiet, and conflicted about his dueling obligations. Stanfield and Kaluuya are both quite a bit older than their characters were at the time the film takes place, but they both leverage their age and experience to bring depth and substance to their performances. Sheen’s performance as Hoover is wonderfully sinister and Jesse Plemmons‘ performance as FBI agent Roy Mitchell is perhaps his best yet.
As with a lot of historical movies, one can understand the timeline of events fairly well by reading a few Wikipedia articles, and based on the title alone I was able to guess the thematic arc of the story back in Episode 26 of the Under the Wheels Podcast (above). Nevertheless, I was very impressed by what I saw after finally watching the film. The movie brings a strong point of view and sense of style that make its dramatization of events absolutely worth viewing. The lead actors all give very strong, layered performances, and while the story is certainly bleak and one knows where it will end, every scene is captivating anyway.
