Movie of the Week… And Coming Attractions
Judas and the Black Messiah, now streaming on HBO Max, is like a disturbing, suppressed memory. For over 50 years, the execution of rising Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton by a death squad organized by FBI and Chicago law enforcement officials, has been a tell-tale heart buried in America’s violent history. The 21-year-old charismatic Panther preached a socialist vision of the future that united exploited people of all colors. “White power to white people,” he would chant. “Brown power to brown people. Yellow power to yellow people. Black power to black people.” Hampton was trying to build a rainbow coalition, denouncing racism as a capitalist ploy to divide and conquer people, when he was assassinated in his bed early one morning in December 1969 by Chicago lawmen. Hampton’s messianic story — and his betrayal by his bodyguard, William O’Neal, who turned out to be an FBI informer — is so compelling that it drives the film relentlessly along its narrative path.
Judas and the Black Messiah is shot by young director Shaka King in a gritty, realistic style and features some gripping performances, chiefly that of LaKeith Stanfield, whose rabbity yet proud portrayal of the snitch O’Neal steals the show. The less powerful performance by Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton is a serious but not fatal flaw. Perhaps it’s time for U.S. filmmakers to admit that British actors can’t pull off every American role. The real Fred Hampton was a bigger, more commanding figure in all ways than Kaluuya manages onscreen — as this old video footage of a Hampton speech demonstrates.
It’s so darkly thrilling to see some of America’s long-disappeared history finally get dramatic exposure. The truth is that U.S. security officials acted like ruthless Maoists during the 1960s, on the principle that power comes from the barrel of a gun. Men like the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover (played in the film with excessive zeal by Martin Sheen) and the CIA’s Allen Dulles decided, in concert with other powerful officials, that charismatic leaders like the Kennedy brothers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Fred Hampton needed to be eliminated in the interests of national security. The U.S. establishment, including the mainstream media, still has a hard time admitting how bloody the official reaction was to the progressive upheavals of the ‘60s.
So the powerful Judas and the Black Messiah is a welcome corrective to years of historical cover-ups. Let the truth-telling continue.
Coming Attractions… I have five more copies of my forthcoming book, By the Light of Burning Dreams: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Second American Revolution (co-authored with Margaret Talbot) which I’ll be giving away FREE to the five people who move quickest to donate $50 to The David Talbot Show. Act now and after making your $50 donation, email your name and address to david@talbotplayers.com for a free book when it’s published in June…
Speaking of the heroic radicalism of the past (and the Talbot family), I’m pleased to announce the making of the documentary The Movement and the Madman by my brother Steve, a longtime, award-winning PBS producer. You can view the trailer here…
My friends have also been busy in lockdown. I’m looking forward to the imminent release of Zoe Carter’s new album Waterlines. One of my fondest pre-pandemic memories is when Zoe dropped into a small dinner party that my wife and I were hosting and ended up playing some Van Morrison and John Prine tunes in our living room on her acoustic guitar. She’s a very talented singer. You can pre-order Zoe’s album here…
And finally, congratulations to Carla Malden, a fellow product of Oakwood School and Old Hollywood, on the publication of her new novel, Shine Until Tomorrow. With its theme of time-machine-travel to San Francisco in the ‘60s, Carla’s novel is right up my paisley alley. You can order the book here.
