Racism as a convenient zone of psychological comfort... and film-making as a wake-up call...

Rating: 9/10 (4 November 2018)

As a fan of Spike Lee, I know this review will sound awfully biased, but only to the extent that I'm preoccupied by the way intolerance infected many souls of civilization.
Now, Spike Lee is not a political director but a director who cares for politics to the degree that politics care for people; ever since his "Do The Right Thing" in 1989, he never made any secrets about his political inclinations, he sided with Clinton in 1992 less as a democrat than someone who thought Bush would be worse. So any attempt to trap his new "BlacKkKlansman" within the 'Liberals vs. Conservatives' realm wouldn't solve the problem but only prove too well that it exists.
The movie is a biopic, not the type to garner Oscar nominations (I do expect one for Best Screenplay though) but a biopic that cares for substance, for ideas rather than being your average crowd-pleaser. The acting never crosses the line of emotionality as Lee doesn't try to bait the Academy but only uses his artistry for a cautionary tale addressed to American (and maybe even European) societies. So, I shouldn't even talk about the Oscars, let's get to the real stuff.
Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is the first Afro-American to join the Colorado Springs Police Department. His first job in the archives makes him realize very quickly that bigotry runs in the Police, for some 'colleagues', it practically gallops given the terms of identifications they use to describe African-Americans. But that's only a foretaste on what's awaiting us, there's more than one racist rant in the film... so sensitive ears are warned.
Still, Lee takes his time before getting to the point as we see Ron dealing first undercover assignment in a Black Panther meeting. Even as a fan , I was afraid the film might sound a bit too preachy for its own good. The speech made by the Black Panther leader, inviting students to love themselves, to accept their identity as black people instead of mimicking or trying to mix with the whites is powerful but visually, it might not be Lee's subtlest work... thankfully, it's not overused.
Washington's acting is more notable in that scene: from his neutral expression, I couldn't tell how he actually felt about Corey Hawkins' speech. This is a man who endures racism on a daily basis but chose to join the Police Force, he looks sincere enough in his approving nods, but not so much to raise his fist and join their enthusiastic "Black Power" chant. This is a real masterful portrayal of a character literally sitting on two chairs, and by his own admittance a few scenes later, who must live with two people inside his head.
Now, to get back to Lee's work, the meeting sequence is important for two precise pay-offs: Ron meets female militant Patrice (Laura Harrier) and together they become good friends and have the most interesting conversation (and I don't mean that loosely). And then later when he joins the KKK, we have enough intellectual material to draw parallels between the way Black people picture themselves and the way they're looked at. It is important to have that glimpse before getting to the other side.
Now, I'd rather not get into too much details about Ron infiltrating the KKK, because it's a terrific undercover story with fun novelties. First of all, it's pure curiosity that drove Ron into making contact with the "Organization", if even they can print an ad in the newspaper, maybe there's something rotten going on and that is worth making a phone call and see where this leads to. The second novelty is that there are two cops in the mission, it's Adam Driver as Flip Zimmermann who must pass as the "man behind the voice": white all right, but Jewish.
Spike Lee has often been accused for his portrayal of Jewish characters (especially "Mo' Better Blues") or his vocal concerns about the double standards between Blacks and Jews. But I think that was an unfair trial that gave him bad publicity and stained his reputation, critic Gene Siskel (of Jewish ancestry) considered Lee was in his right to express his own views. Besides, Lee doesn't hierarchize hatreds but shows them as the ends of a same spectrum of hatred meant to last. Indeed, we hear nasty things in the film but not much worse from what we hear in any Internet comments against Blacks, Jews, Gays, Arabs etc.
And Lee exposes an interesting theory connecting the film's context with the rise of racism to a certain presidency today, and that might not content a few supporters. But before one accuses Lee of being some "liberal midget", one should also look at the last five minutes of the film and consider the recent tragedy in Pittsburgh.
One more thing, I remember during the Caramail days, I used to register in different identities and have fun feigning being racist toward my own "kind" in order to elicit a reaction from the "other side". Why it was fun I don't know, maybe because it showed that people are maybe racist to be in a sort of psychological zone of comfort or self-defense machanism, what better than believing that you belong to the right side, after all?
But the film shows the dramatic catch of rubbing people's hearts in the right direction. Spike Lee hasn't just a stance against a political leader but also a certain movie I felt sorry for praising its iconic value: "The Birth of a Nation". There's a powerful cameo of Harry Belafonte telling a story of some savage lynching that occurred as a reaction to that movie screening, and it's just reminded (and I'm not making comparisons) of the Twitter reactions against Arabs after the release of "American Sniper".
Maybe it says something about the responsibility of Cinema as an Art, and maybe the film was made because Lee felt responsible enough... to remind us that history has a tendency to repeat itself. Let's just hope future proves him wrong!