BlacKkKlansman

2018 film directed by Spike LeeTemplate:SHORTDESC:2018 film directed by Spike Lee

* David Rabinowitz
* Kevin Willmott
* Spike Lee
* Raymond Mansfield
* Sean McKittrick
* Jordan Peele
* John David Washington
* Adam Driver
* Laura Harrier
* Topher Grace
* Monkeypaw Productions
* QC Entertainment
* 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks
* Legendary Entertainment
* May 14, 2018 (2018-05-14) (Cannes)
* August 10, 2018 (2018-08-10) (United States)

***BlacKkKlansman*** is a 2018 American biographical black comedy crime film directed by Spike Lee and written by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Lee, based on the 2014 memoir *Black Klansman* by Ron Stallworth. The film stars John David Washington as Stallworth, along with Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, and Topher Grace. Set in the 1970s in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the plot follows the first African-American detective in the city's police department as he sets out to infiltrate and expose the local Ku Klux Klan chapter.

The film was produced by Spike Lee, Raymond Mansfield, Shaun Redick, Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, and Jordan Peele. QC Entertainment purchased the film rights to the book in 2015. Lee signed on as director in September 2017. Much of the cast joined the following month, and filming began in New York State.

*BlacKkKlansman* premiered on May 14, 2018, at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix. It was theatrically released in the United States on August 10, 2018, a day before the first anniversary of the Unite the Right rally. The film received acclaim from critics, who praised Lee's direction, the performances (particularly of Washington and Driver) and timely themes, as well as noting it as a return to form for Lee. It received six nominations at the 91st Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Lee's first directing nomination), and Best Supporting Actor for Driver, and won for Best Adapted Screenplay, making it Lee's first competitive Academy Award. The American Film Institute also selected it as one of the top 10 films of 2018, and at the 76th Golden Globe Awards it earned four nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Drama.

## Plot

In 1972, Ron Stallworth is hired as the first black officer in the Colorado Springs Police Department. Assigned to work in the records room, he tires of being harassed and applies to be an undercover cop. He is assigned to infiltrate a local rally where national civil rights leader Kwame Ture (a.k.a. Stokely Carmichael) is speaking. At the rally, Stallworth meets Patrice Dumas, president of the Black Student Union at Colorado College. While taking Ture to his hotel, Patrice is stopped by patrolman Andy Landers, a racist officer in Stallworth's precinct, who threatens Ture and gropes Patrice.

Following the rally, Stallworth is reassigned to the intelligence division. After reading about a local division of the Ku Klux Klan in the newspaper, he calls posing as white. He speaks with Walter Breachway, the president of the Colorado Springs chapter, but soon realizes not only did he use his real name, but must also meet the Klan members. Stallworth recruits his Jewish coworker, Flip Zimmerman, to impersonate him and meet the Klan members while he continues posing as white on the phone. Under Stallworth's identity, Zimmerman meets Walter, the slightly more reckless Felix Kendrickson (and later his wife Connie), and Ivanhoe, who cryptically refers to an upcoming attack.

Calling Klan headquarters in Louisiana to expedite his membership, Stallworth begins regular phone conversations with Grand Wizard David Duke. Kendrickson suspects Zimmerman of being Jewish and tries to force him to take a polygraph test at gunpoint, but Stallworth, overhearing everything on the wire Zimmerman is wearing, breaks the Kendricksons' kitchen window as a distraction. Stallworth begins dating Patrice without telling her that he is a police officer. After passing information to the Army CID about active-duty members, he learns from an FBI agent that two members are personnel stationed at NORAD.

Duke visits Colorado Springs for Stallworth's induction into the Klan. Over the real Stallworth's protests, he is assigned to a protection detail for Duke. Once Zimmerman, masquerading as Stallworth, is initiated, Connie leaves the ceremony to place a bomb at a local civil rights rally. The real Stallworth realizes her intentions and alerts local police officers. When Connie notices a heavy police presence at the rally, she puts Felix's backup plan into action and plants the bomb at Patrice's house, leaving it under her car when it will not fit into the mailbox. Stallworth tackles her as she tries to flee, but uniformed officers detain and beat him despite his protests that he is working undercover.

 File:Birth of a Nation (1915).webm
The bombmaker, Walker, recognizes Zimmerman from a prior arrest and informs Felix. He, Felix, and Ivanhoe drive to the house and park next to Patrice's car without realizing that the bomb is hidden underneath. When they detonate it, the explosion kills all three. Zimmerman arrives and frees Stallworth, and Connie is arrested. While Stallworth is celebrating the closed case that night with Patrice, Landers arrives and harasses the two, remorselessly admitting to his assault on Patrice; Stallworth then reveals he is wearing a wire, and Police Chief Bridges arrives and arrests Landers for police brutality.

Bridges congratulates the team for their success but orders them to end their investigation and destroy the records. Stallworth receives a call from Duke, and he insultingly tells Duke he is black before hanging up. While Patrice and Stallworth discuss their future, they are interrupted by a knock on the door. Through the window in the hallway, they see a flaming cross on a hillside surrounded by Klan members. The film then cuts to actual footage of the 2017 Unite the Right rally, where a still-respected Duke is a speaker, and ends with an upside-down American flag that fades to black and white.

## Cast

* John David Washington as Detective Ron Stallworth
* Adam Driver as Detective Philip "Flip" Zimmerman
* Laura Harrier as Patrice Dumas
* Topher Grace as David Duke
* Jasper Pääkkönen as Felix Kendrickson
* Ryan Eggold as Walter Breachway
* Paul Walter Hauser as Ivanhoe
* Ashlie Atkinson as Connie Kendrickson
* Corey Hawkins as Kwame Ture
* Michael Buscemi as Jimmy Creek
* Ken Garito as Sergeant Trapp
* Robert John Burke as Chief Bridges
* Fred Weller as Patrolman Andy Landers
* Nicholas Turturro as Walker
* Harry Belafonte as Jerome Turner
* Alec Baldwin as Kennebrew Beauregard
* Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Mr. Turrentine
* Damaris Lewis as Odetta

## Production

In July 2015, screenwriters/co-producers Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz discovered the book *Black Klansman* by Ron Stallworth. They interviewed Stallworth and wrote a spec screenplay, then pitched the script to producers Shaun Redick and Ray Mansfield. They brought the property to QC Entertainment, which had co-produced the successful 2017 film *Get Out*. QC again teamed up with Jason Blum's company Blumhouse Productions, and Jordan Peele's company Monkeypaw Productions, to produce the project.

In September of that year, Spike Lee signed on as director and John David Washington was in negotiations to star. The following month, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace, and Corey Hawkins had joined the cast. In November, Paul Walter Hauser, Jasper Pääkkönen, and Ryan Eggold joined the cast, with Ashlie Atkinson joining a month later.

Filming began in October 2017. Ossining, New York, was one location used in October. Filming locations also included the Rockland County hamlet of Garnerville, New York, where exterior shots of one of the Colorado Springs police stations were filmed.

 File:2017 Charlottesville vehicle-ramming attack.webm
Harry Belafonte appears in the film recounting the lynching of Jesse Washington; according to Lee, he commanded his crew on the day of filming Belafonte's scene to dress for the occasion in suits and dresses to honor Belafonte.

Lee ends the film with a tribute to anti-fascist counter-protester Heather Heyer, who was killed on August 12, 2017, in the Charlottesville car attack during the Unite the Right rally.

## Release

 File:Cannes 2018 14.jpg
On April 12, 2018, the film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered on May 14. It opened in the United States on August 10, 2018, which was chosen to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Charlottesville rally.

## Reception

### Box office

*BlacKkKlansman* grossed $49.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $44.1 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $93.4 million, against a production budget of $15 million.

In the United States and Canada, *BlacKkKlansman* was released alongside *Slender Man* and *The Meg*, and was projected to gross around $10 million from 1,512 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $3.6 million on its first day (including $670,000 from Thursday night previews). It went on to debut to $10.8 million, finishing fifth at the box office and marking Lee's best opening weekend since *Inside Man* ($29 million) in 2006. It made $7.4 million in its second weekend and $5.3 million in its third, finishing seventh and eighth, respectively.

### Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of Template:RT data based on Template:RT data reviews, with an average rating of Template:RT data. The website's critical consensus reads, "*BlacKkKlansman* uses history to offer bitingly trenchant commentary on current events—and brings out some of Spike Lee's hardest-hitting work in decades along the way." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 56 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an 85% positive score and a 67% "definite recommend".

Peter Bradshaw of *The Guardian* gave the film three out of five stars, writing: "It's an entertaining spectacle but the brilliant tonal balance in something like Jordan Peele's satire *Get Out* leaves this looking a little exposed. Yet it responds fiercely, contemptuously to the crassness at the heart of the Trump regime and gleefully pays it back in its own coin". For *IndieWire*, David Ehrlich gave the film a grade of "B+" and wrote that it is "far more frightening than it is funny", and "packages such weighty and ultra-relevant subjects into the form of a wildly uneven but consistently entertaining night at the movies".

A. O. Scott, writing for *The New York Times*, saw the film as both political and provocative in opening up discussion on timely subject matter following Charlottesville. He stated, "Committed anti-racists can sit quietly or laugh politely when hateful things are said. Epithets uttered in irony can be repeated in earnest. The most shocking thing about Flip's (Adam Driver's undercover detective role) imposture is how easy it seems, how natural he looks and sounds. This unnerving authenticity is partly testament to Mr. Driver's ability to tuck one performance inside another, but it also testifies to a stark and discomforting truth. Maybe not everyone who is white is a racist, but racism is what makes us white. Don't sleep on this movie."

In his review of the film for *Vulture*, David Edelstein found the film to be a potent antidote for previous films that Lee sees as unduly supportive of the racist viewpoint in the past, such as Griffith's *The Birth of a Nation*. Edelstein stated: "Lee himself has a propagandist streak, and he knows nothing ever sold the message of white emasculation and the existential necessity of keeping blacks down as well as Griffith's 1915 film. It revived the Klan and—insult to injury—is still reckoned a landmark of narrative filmmaking. If there were no other reason to make *BlackkKlansman*, this one would be good enough."

Filmmaker Boots Riley, whose feature film debut *Sorry to Bother You* also premiered in 2018, criticized the film for its political perspective. While Riley called the craft of the film "masterful" and cited Lee as a major influence on his own work, he felt that the film was dishonestly marketed as a true story and criticized its attempts to "make a cop the protagonist in the fight against racist oppression", when Black Americans face structural racism "from the police on a day-to-day basis". In particular, Riley alleged that the film glossed over Stallworth's time spent working for COINTELPRO to "sabotage a Black radical organization" and objected to the film's choices to portray Stallworth's partner as Jewish and to fictionalize a bombing "to make the police seem like heroes". Lee responded in an interview with *The Times* on August 24, stating that while his films "have been very critical of the police ... I'm never going to say that all police are corrupt, that all police hate people of color."

### Accolades

*BlacKkKlansman* won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. It was subsequently nominated for four Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture – Drama. Lee was nominated for Outstanding Feature Film by the Directors Guild of America and the producers were nominated for the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture.

The film was also nominated for four Critics Choice Awards, including Best Picture, seven Satellite Awards, including Best Director for Lee, and is nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for Driver, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, including Outstanding Male Actor for Washington. The American Film Institute also included it in its Top 10 Films of the Year.

*BlacKkKlansman* was nominated for six Academy Awards and won Best Adapted Screenplay. Nominations included Best Picture, Lee for Best Director, and Driver for Best Supporting Actor. The film was also nominated for Best Film Editing and composer Terence Blanchard was nominated for Best Original Score.

## Historical accuracy

 File:El Paso-Ron Stallworth-Black Klansman 1 (47442791502).jpg
Although based on a true story, the film dramatizes several events:

* The investigation occurred between 1978 and 1979, although the film is set in 1972. (David Duke did not become Grand Wizard until 1974, and Stokely Carmichael did not change his name to Kwame Ture until 1978.)
* The true identity of Stallworth's partner remains secret, and was only referred to as "Chuck" in the memoir; he also was not Jewish as depicted in the film. There was also a second white officer ("Jim") who also went undercover alongside Chuck.
* Stallworth and other officers never worked to secretly expose and arrest a racist cop (as depicted in the film), although he does mention in the memoir an officer who shot and killed a young boy but was protected by fellow law enforcement officers.
* Stallworth did work security, meet, and take a photo with Duke when he visited Colorado, although it was a much more intimate gathering than the large ceremony depicted in the film, and his partner's cover was never blown.
* The bomb plot against the Black Student Union is fictional, although Stallworth noted the local chapter did at one point have plans to attack a local gay bar.
* The character of Patrice is fictional, although Stallworth does mention dating a young woman while doing the investigation.
* Stallworth never called Duke to admit he was actually a black man; Duke did not find out until he was asked to fact-check the story by a reporter in 2006.

## See also

* List of black films of the 2010s
* Race (human categorization)

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"The 2018 Official Selection". *Festival de Cannes 2021*. Cannes Film Festival. April 12, 2018. Archived from the original on April 13, 2018. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 BlacKkKlansman (2018). IMDb.
3. ↑ Salisbury, Mark (February 14, 2019). 'BlacKkKlansman' producers on pitching Spike Lee and the film's lasting impact (en).
4. ↑ Rabinowitz, David (August 10, 2018). 'BlacKkKlansman' Writers On Handing 'Our Baby' to Spike Lee and Finding a Home for Their Screenplay Without an Agent. Penske Business Media.
5. ↑ 'Black Klansman' KKK Thriller in the Works From Spike Lee, Jordan Peele (Exclusive). Prometheus Global Media (September 8, 2017).
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Adam Driver Joins Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman'. Penske Business Media (October 25, 2017).
7. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Kroll, Justin (September 8, 2017). "Spike Lee, Jordan Peele Team Up on KKK Crime Thriller 'Black Klansman'". *Variety*. Penske Business Media. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
8. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>McNary, Dave (October 25, 2017). "Adam Driver Joins Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman' Thriller". *Variety*. Penske Business Media. Archived from the original on November 13, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
9. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Busch, Anita (October 31, 2017). "Topher Grace Joins Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman'". *Deadline Hollywood*. Penske Business Media. Archived from the original on November 19, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
10. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Galuppo, Mia (October 31, 2017). "Corey Hawkins Joins Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman' (Exclusive)". *The Hollywood Reporter*. Prometheus Global Media. Archived from the original on November 19, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
11. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>N'Duka, Amanda (November 9, 2017). "'I, Tonya' Actor Paul Walter Hauser Joins Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman'". *Deadline Hollywood*. Penske Business Media. Archived from the original on November 19, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
12. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Kroll, Justin (November 16, 2017). "Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman' Adds 'Vikings' Actor Jasper Paakkonen (EXCLUSIVE)". *Variety*. Penske Business Media. Archived from the original on November 19, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
13. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Busch, Anita (November 17, 2017). "Ryan Eggold, Who Played Fan Favorite Tom Keen In 'The Blacklist,' Joins Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman'". *Deadline Hollywood*. Penske Business Media. Archived from the original on November 20, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
14. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>N'Duka, Amanda; Patrick Hipes (December 4, 2017). "Pedro Pascal Joins Barry Jenkins' 'If Beale Street Could Talk'; Ashlie Atkinson Cast In 'Black Klansman'". *Deadline Hollywood*. Penske Business Media. Archived from the original on May 15, 2018. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
15. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Barboza, Craigh (November 20, 2017). "Spike Lee Talks 'Black Klansman' Movie and Why He Regrets the Rape Scene in 'She's Gotta Have It' Film". *The Hollywood Reporter*. Prometheus Global Media. Archived from the original on November 22, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
16. ↑ Matsuda, Akiko (October 27, 2017). Spike Lee filming movie in Ossining. Gannett Company.
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 RK Pharma Leases Space AT IRG Site; Film Production Continues Too (January 16, 2019).
18. ↑ Ordona, Michael (February 8, 2019). 'BlacKkKlansman': Spike Lee discusses why he changed the original ending.Template:Dead link
19. ↑ Cannes Lineup Includes New Films From Spike Lee, Jean-Luc Godard. *Variety*. Penske Business Media (April 12, 2018).
20. ↑ Cannes: Spike Lee's 'BlacKkKlansman' Draws 10-Minute Ovation. Prometheus Global Media (May 14, 2018).
21. ↑ McClintock, Pamela (August 8, 2018). Box-Office Preview: Big-Budget 'The Meg' Heads for Tepid $20M-Plus U.S. Debut. Prometheus Global Media.
22. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 10, 2018). 'The Meg' Bigger Than Expected At $36M... But Is It Big Enough? – Midday Box Office. Penske Business Media.
23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 12, 2018). 'August Audiences Get Hooked On 'Meg' Shelling Out $44.5M. Penske Business Media.
24. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 19, 2018). 'Crazy Rich Asians' Even Richer On Saturday With $10M+; Weekend Bling Now At $25M+ With $34M 5-Day Debut. Penske Business Media.
25. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 26, 2018). 'Why 'Happytime Murders' Reps A Solo Career B.O. Low For Melissa McCarthy In A 'Crazy Rich' Weekend – Update. Penske Business Media.
26. ↑ BlacKkKlansman (2018). Fandango.
27. ↑ BlacKkKlansman Reviews. CBS Interactive (2018).
28. ↑ Bradshaw, Peter (May 14, 2018). BlacKkKlansman review – Spike Lee's clanging rebuke to the New Trump Order. Guardian News and Media.
29. ↑ Ehrlich, David (May 14, 2018). 'BlacKkKlansman' Review: Spike Lee Detonates a Funny and Righteously Furious 'Fuck You' to Trump – Cannes 2018. Penske Business Media.
30. ↑ Scott, A. O. (August 9, 2018). America's Heart of Darkness.
31. ↑ Edelstein, David (August 6, 2018). Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman Is an Entertaining and Effective Piece of Melodrama. New York Media.
32. ↑ Template:Cite tweet
33. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Kaplan, Ilana (August 19, 2018). "Boots Riley pens essay on problems with 'BlacKkKlansman'". *Rolling Stone*. Archived from the original on August 20, 2018. Retrieved August 21, 2018.
34. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Dessem, Matthew (August 18, 2018). "*Sorry to Bother You* Director Boots Riley Has a Blistering Critique of Spike Lee's *BlacKkKlansman*". *Slate*. The Slate Group. Archived from the original on August 20, 2018. Retrieved August 21, 2018.
35. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Shoard, Catherine (August 20, 2018). "Boots Riley attacks Spike Lee over 'made up' BlacKkKlansman". *The Guardian*. Guardian News and Media. Archived from the original on August 20, 2018. Retrieved August 21, 2018.
36. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Spike Lee: Trump is a racist. I don't care if you wear a hood or a suit, that's who you are". *The Times*. Times Newspapers Limited. August 24, 2018. Archived from the original on September 8, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
37. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Darville, Jordan (August 24, 2018). "Spike Lee responds to Boots Riley's BlacKkKlansman criticisms". *The Fader*. Archived from the original on September 8, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
38. ↑ Debruge, Peter (May 19, 2018). Japanese Director Hirokazu Kore-eda's 'Shoplifters' Wins Palme d'Or at Cannes. Penske Business Media.
39. ↑ Staff (December 6, 2018). 'Vice,' 'The Assassination of Gianni Versace' lead 2019 Golden Globe nominations. *Los Angeles Times*.
40. ↑ Nolfi, Joey (January 8, 2019). Bradley Cooper, Spike Lee land Directors Guild of America Award nominations: See the full list. *Entertainment Weekly*.
41. ↑ Nolfi, Joey (January 4, 2019). A Star Is Born, Black Panther, more gain Oscar momentum with Producers Guild nominations. *Entertainment Weekly*.
42. ↑ Harris, Hunter (December 10, 2018). The Favourite, Black Panther Lead Critics' Choice Awards Nominations.
43. ↑ 2018 Nominees (November 28, 2018).
44. ↑ Erbland, Kate (November 16, 2018). 2019 Independent Spirit Awards Nominees, 'Eighth Grade' & 'We the Animals' Lead.
45. ↑ Hipes, Patrick (December 12, 2018). SAG Awards Nominations: 'A Star Is Born', 'Mrs. Maisel', 'Ozark' Lead Way – The Full List.
46. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Tapley, Kristopher (December 4, 2018). "'Black Panther,' 'A Quiet Place,' 'Atlanta' and More Selected for AFI Awards". *Variety*. Archived from the original on December 5, 2018. Retrieved December 5, 2018.
47. ↑ Oscars 2019: The nominees in full (January 22, 2019).
48. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>"Editorial: why the movie 'Blackkklansman' matters". *The Roanoke Times*. August 17, 2018. Archived from the original on August 17, 2018. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
49. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Sanders, Jasmine (August 10, 2018). "What's Fact and What's Fiction in BlacKkKlansman". *Slate*. Archived from the original on June 10, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2020.

## External links

Template:Wikiquote

* Template:Official site
* *BlacKkKlansman* at IMDb
* Template:AllMovie title
* Template:Metacritic film
* Template:Rotten Tomatoes
* *BlacKkKlansman* at *History vs. Hollywood*