Very much SPIKE LEE's take on Ron Stallworth's amazing true story

Rating: Null/10 (14 August 2018)

Despite being based on a true story, and having three other credited screenwriters (plus, a book), this is very much SPIKE LEE's Blackkklansman (note also the added K which is not on the book). The basics of detective Ron Stallworth's memoir are still at play. Detective Stallworth (John David Washington) was the first black office hired in Colorado Springs in the 1970s. Stallworth did "join" the KKK and carried on conversations with them. When the time came for a face-to-face meeting, a white officer here called Zimmerman (played by Adam Driver; although the real Stallworth has kept his true identity secret). Together they infiltrated the local Klan and helped foil some of their racist deeds. Spike Lee does a decent job with the main storyline, although, it can come off as a bit dry and overlong.
Clearly, the mundane details didn't engage Lee's filmmaking juices. So, with the other screenwriters, the story is embellished. Stallworth's girlfriend Patrice (Laura Harrier) isn't just a local, but, now she's the head of the local Black Student Union - and, ta da! -- now a chief target of the local KKK. Zimmerman isn't just white, he's now also Jewish - AND, has problems with his identity as such. There isn't just racism in the police force, but, there's also a singularly hateful specimen named Landers (Frederick Weller) who is ripe for a comeuppance. Astonishingly, the most "unbelievable" part of the film is actually TRUE -- Stallworth did strike up a correspondence with KKK Grand Wizard David Duke (Topher Grace; excellent) AND did get assigned to protect the bigot when he came to town! Nobody expects to see a Documentary when you go to a Hollywood treatment of a true story, and every viewer will have to decide for themselves if and/or to what extent the liberties taken here go too far. Most are somewhat understandable, but one is kind of a head-scratcher -- moving the story from 1979 to 1972. Stokely Carmichael (aka Kwame Ture)'s speech in town was in '72 and , yes, Stallworth did cover it as a cop. Perhaps, Spike also wanted to set the story closer to the 60s civil right protests, the height of the Black Panthers and to include his fun tribute to Blaxploitation cinema (although, it renders references to COFFY and CLEOPATRA JONES as anachronisms since they came out a year later)?
BLACKKKLANSMAN still stirs. It's full of Spike's righteous anger and that clearly inspired him. Some of the Spike-isms go a bit far with the lampooning of the local KKK members as Southern Style racist goons (you'd swear those characters were 'imported' from David Duke's South into the Midwestern Colorado locale). He also can't help but take a virtual highlighting marker to references to President Trump -- and, that's AFTER said references were already underlined, to boot (the word "subtle" is rarely mentioned in the same sentence with"Spike Lee"). The cross-cutting of the Klan watching BIRTH OF A NATION with a talk by Harry Belafonte (grand) is powerful if far too long.
The acting is across the board fine, but Adam Driver falls flat. Driver has been solid in pictures like PATERSON and WHILE WE'RE YOUNG, but, as in the Star Wars films he can fall into a dull monotone. It's also hard to believe that the Klansman would take him in as one of their own. He simply doesn't pass the Redneck test (fellow cop Jimmy (Michael Buscemi) would have been far more credible. The cinematography by Chayse Irvin (on 35mm film, which does give it a gritty 70s feel) is quite good. Terence Blanchard's score is adequate, but the soundtrack is carried by the period songs.
Released the same weekend as the anniversary of the white supremacists killing of civil rights protester Heather Hyer gives BLACKKKLANSMAN yet another contemporary resonance. The actual footage of which may have been more appropriate after the closing credits, but, that's a quibble. It's a powerful coda to a very angry, if inconsistent, film.