Classic Film Review #7: Black KkKlansman
BlackKkKlansman
Available on: 4OD
BlackKkKlansman is Spike Lee’s recounting of Ron Stallworth’s improbable penetration of the Ku Klux Klan. If you’re wondering why his feat was scarcely believable, it’s because Stallworth was the first black officer on the Colorado Springs police force.
Aiding him in the ingenious duping was Flip Zimmerman, a white Jewish-American police officer who physically attended Klan meetings in Stallworth’s name. His counterpart, meanwhile, would engage with Klan members – including head honcho David Duke – via telephone under the guise of a typical white-collar accent.
If this escapade sounds slightly comical, then it’s because it is. Lee has never been afraid to use satire as a means of making an altogether deeper point, and BlackKkKlansman might be his most impressive film in this regard. It invites its audience to join Stallworth (John David Washington) and Zimmerman (Adam Driver) in laughing at the Klan behind its back, acknowledging its racist members for the unabashed fools they are.
Crucially, the film acknowledges the danger that these Neanderthals pose, despite their stupidity. This is reflected by the way in which BlackKkKlansman’s tone steadily darkens, with its at-times broad comedic brushstrokes steadily replaced by an impending sense of danger and, more importantly, correlation between past events and the modern-day.
The latter point is the one in which the power of Lee’s film resides, with its interspersions of scenes from controversial films such as Birth of the Nation and Gone with the Wind grimly dovetailing with footage from the fatal 2017 Charlottesville march and Donald Trump’s incendiary defence of its culprits.
Ultimately, BlackKkKlansman offers a sad reminder that racism continues to pervade American society and that its figureheads, be they perma-tanned or altogether more presentable, hold more political power than the oppressed. In that sense, it is a crucial slice of contemporary cinema that packs a bigger punch than one might first expect.
