Thought Provoking

Rating: 7/10 (12 August 2018)

I saw "BlacKkKlansman", starring John David Washington-Ballers_tv, Malcolm X, Oh yeah, he is the son of Denzel; Adam Driver-Kylo Ren in the Star Wars movies, This Is Where I Leave You; Laura Harrier-Spider_Man:Homecoming, One Life To Live_tv and Topher Grace-Predators, Spider_Man 3.
This movie is based on a true story about an African-American cop that infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970's. It is based on the book that was written by the police officer doing the infiltrating, Ron Stallworth and directed by Spike Lee. John plays Ron, the first black cop in Colorado Springs, Colorado. At first, he is given office file duty and gets really bored really quick. Then, he gets the idea to try and infiltrate the KKK after he calls them-and using his best white voice-talks to the head honcho himself, David Duke, played by Topher. He keeps up the masquerade over the phone but he needs a white cop to meet the klan members in person, so that's where Adam comes in. Laura is working for a college group of young protesters that John infiltrates-he also falls for her. The movie covers racism, anger & hate during the period so there is some strong, racially charged language. You can see parallels between the way people acted then and the way people do today-there are some subtle Trump jabs. There are also a couple of cameos. Harry Belafonte tells a story of racism and torture during one part of the movie. As the end credits start, you can hear 'Mary Don't You Weep' by Prince, a previously unreleased live recording and they also show some actual riot footage taken at Charlottesville about a year ago, plus a tribute to the murder of Heather Heyer.
It's rated "R" for language-including racial epithets-disturbing and violent material and sexual references and has a running time of 2 hours & 15 minutes.
It is a thought provoking film and I would probably buy it on DVD.