HBO has finally had a successful theatrical/streaming release. After the first few being duds, Judas and the Black Messiah really shows out with a potential award-winning story and performances. The story of betrayal was incredibly interesting and mustered emotion from those watching. It topped Malcom and Maria as being the best released film from this year, mainly because the story had more depth and accomplished its goals much better, because it had more depth to dive into. The film raised some interesting questions and gave an interesting look into the life of two men who should be remembered by history.
Judas and the Black Messiah starts out with William O’neal, LaKieth Stanfield, attempting to steal a car and getting arrested. While in custody, Roy Mitchell offers him a deal, O’Neal can do his six years in jail, or he can go undercover in the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party and share info with the FBI. While undercover, O’Neal becomes a close confidant of Fred Hampton, Daniel Kaluuya, the leader. This made it so O’Neal had excellent information on the party and their plans. Thus making O’Neal the Judas in the story because he was going to sell out the leader for money and freedom. Fred Hampton was the Black Messiah, a very charismatic man, who gave many intense speeches to rouse his supporters, and he also helped feed many of the children in the area for free. Due to information provided by O’Neal, one night the house Hampton and other members of the party were staying in got raided by the FBI, where the FBI ended up killing Hampton.
One of the biggest questions this raised was about the betrayal, how many people if put in the same situation would turn it down. Six years in prison is a long time, and if offered a chance to get out of the bid, it would be hard to say no. The problem was that not only was he eventually going to betray this person that he initially did not know, but in essence, he was also betraying a whole race of people by taking out a leader of one of the bigger organizations fighting for equal rights. Initially it does not seem like he had much of a problem with sharing the information with Roy, but the more he became a member of the organization, and the more Roy asked for, the more O’Neal seemed skeptical of what he was doing. Ultimately, even after becoming greatly acquainted with those in the crew, he still gives out the final piece of information that results in Fred Hampton getting murdered in his bed by the FBI. It was a very unceremonious death too. He had been shot when the raid started, and he was in critical condition, but once the raid had simmered an FBI officer went into the room and shot him again to make sure he would not make it. A true and blatant injustice to a man who had a pregnant wife in the other room. One of the worst parts of the postscript was that the Panthers only shot one bullet, where as the FBI shot 99. For his traitorous acts, O’Neal received over $200,000 and no time served. O’Neal did commit suicide after his part of the story was shared on a PBS documentary.
The movie also made it seem like O’Neal felt guilty of giving up the information about Hampton. It seemed like maybe he had gained an emotional connection to Hampton that he no longer wanted to betray. It seems like there can come a point when undercover that the person can start to forget that they are undercover, and they can start to relate to the people they were trying to betray instead. There is a book called American Kingpin about an online drug marketplace on the dark web. The DEA had an agent start going undercover on the forums to try and create a relationship with the leader, but the undercover agent gets too deep, and he ends up becoming a criminal instead of trying to stop them. There are other stories of similar things happening with people flopping sides, so it raises the question if O’Neal was close to flipping sides, or if it was just portrayed that way.
Another piece of the movie that stuck out had to do with Fred Hampton’s girlfriend, Deborah Johnson. Right before Hampton gets arrested and sent to prison, Johnson got pregnant. Hampton did not find out she was pregnant until after he was released from prison. Then he was killed before getting to see the birth of his child. This stuck out because of the amount of emotional weight it must have taken to be in a relationship with and have a child with a staunch revolutionary with a target on his back. Looking at other major revolutionaries in the Civil Rights era that had targets on their back like MLK and Malcolm X, both had wives and at least one kid. So the women in these relationships had to live with the emotional weight that the men whose children they were having were in almost constant danger. It cannot be an easy choice to have and raise a child in these circumstances. Sadly all three of these men met a similar fate of assassination leaving these women to raise their children without the father. Being a revolutionary is not easy, and it involves a ton of sacrifice, but these men were able to achieve positive change in the world.
One of the reasons that Fred Hampton was singled out to be assassinated was mentioned at the beginning of the movie in the FBI briefing. They mentioned that the biggest enemy to the U.S was not Vietnam or the Soviets, but the revolutionaries within America, and the most danger would come form a person that could garner enough support from varying groups to create a unified fight for change. This person they were describing was Fred Hampton. Not only was he able to create an excellent organization in Chicago, he was also able to get other organizations to join his side. He had a rival group within Chicago that did not initially like him to join his side, and he was also able to get another organization that was primarily white to join his side. Neither alliance seemed likely to happen but through very convincing oration, he was able to sway these people to join him, thus creating the problem that the FBI had been describing. Hampton also had strong community support. He had multiple centers where he would help feed kids in need for free, and he would also have educational programs at these centers. So all of this made him a target because he was going to change the norms of the time, even though it was for the better.
A last aspect of the movie that helped enhance it even more was the music. The music throughout the film was excellently chosen and implemented. It was largely a suspenseful Jazz. It helped set the tone by creating an ominous tone showing that where the movie was leading was not going to be a happy ending. It showed that the people in the movie were in danger and that the tension was rising. It was unique and not like any other movie. Music scores can really help enhance a story if the correct choice is made, and in this instance, they did an excellent job.
Like other movies that have been released recently this movie had a strong focus on equality, government abuse of power, and police brutality. All these themes continue to be present and of the times due to the problems that have continued to persist. They did an excellent job of conveying these themes through an interesting lens, one of betrayal. In the two months of this year, this has been the best movie so far, and it received a 90. Due to the delayed Oscars this year, this film is still eligible to receive awards this year. It will probably do so, it was better than any movie that I saw last year, and the two actors starring did an excellent job.
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