Judas and the Black Messiah                       5 stars

For many years I have heard the name Fred Hampton and the story of the Black Panthers but never really understood the importance of his name and what he stood for in late sixties Chicago. In Judas and the Black Messiah, Shaka King gives us his version of the story of the Black Panther Chicago chapter chairman and the FBI informant, Bill O’Neal and the ultimate murder of Hampton at the hands of the FBI and the Chicago police. Daniel Kaluuya (of Queen & Slim and Get Out) gives a career high star (and Oscar nominated) performance of Hampton with his speeches showing the rhetorical skills of the Black Panther leader and his vision of purpose of saving the downtrodden with the founding of the Rainbow Coalition. The events of the film take place only months after the Martin Luther King assassination and show that unlike King, Fred Hampton was not above seeking violence against the police. LaKeith Stanfield (of The Photograph and Sorry to Bother You) plays Bill O’Neal, who was only a teenager when the FBI picked him up impersonating an FBI agent and coerced him into joining the Black Panthers and becoming an informant on Hampton’s movements and actions. Stanfield, who also received an Oscar nomination for the film, brilliantly portrays O’Neal as the conflicted man who believes in the Panther cause while at the same time continuing with the FBI plan as he is forced by his FBI handler, Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons). The title describes the situation well as the Judas is torn by admiration and guilt while being completely helpless in freeing himself from his situation. The film gives us additional context by showing actual footage of the real O’Neal in his final 1989 interview telling of his action before he finally committed suicide. It is very illuminating that this film came out in the year following the George Floyd murder at the hands of police and the unrest that followed. It shows that some things have not really changed in fifty years. The film running time exceeds two hours and may be slow in sections, but I am very glad that it was made and that it is being seen by wide audiences.