BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee, August 10th, 2018) Movie • Page 3

Will do! Looks like Inside Man is on Netflix so that will probably be my next watch.

 

I really enjoyed this movie, but this critique is pretty important:

 

It’s fair, but I think Spike very intentionally made a slick Hollywood movie about traditional movie hero cops, then hammered the Charlottesville footage at the end to undercut all of it and show how futile the efforts ultimately were, how the real footage is such a stark contrast between the movie we just enjoyed, because he wants us to feel how different the reality is. That dolly shot, I read it differently than Boots does. Even within the universe of the movie, when they’ve had their movie “victory” happy ending, and Ron stresses that he can be a cop and fight racism, that dolly shot immediately leads us face to face with the fact that he didn’t actually change anything. He just helped himself and some “good” white cops feel better about themselves, while Patrice never had any illusions about the dynamic between her, Ron, and the police. Same with Harry Belafonte’s monologue. The film repeatedly emphasizes how it’s own text is not reality, just a vessel attempting to make a point. Boots’ interpretation is more than valid, I and several friends read some elements differently than he does.

 

This was solid. Every undercover scene had me tense as all hell, especially the lie detector bit. And the cutting between the Black Student Union and the klan meeting was brilliant. I was a bit underwhelmed by the end standoff with the car bomb. The scenes leading up to it were all so tense and gripping, but the execution of the climax felt, well a little anti-climatic by comparison. Overall though, a good film. I get the criticisms of the cartoonishly racist white people, but that was what Spike was going for and in all honesty, it shouldn't strike anyone as unrealistic.

 

Haha yeah, I didn't even realize that Felix and the crew had died in the explosion because of the way that it's cut

 

I really, really liked this movie. The integrated initiation vs black power meeting scene was jaw-dropping. It made me so angry, which was the point. Also, Corey Hawkins as Kwame Ture was fantastic and my favorite performance in the film. The emotional flip of "yay our heroes won" to the march footage was absolutely staggering and was a masterful move because the reality is crushing. You could hear a pin drop in the last 5 minutes of this movie until the credits started to roll and the slow squeak of everyone getting out of their seats.

 

Gonna see this today. Marcus Theatres didnt have it opening weekend

 

Yea...the movie really gives you a punch straight to the nuts at the end after a brief moment of victory. I appreciate that the studio or test audiences didn’t talk him out of that. Not that Spike is the kind of guy to probably care about that stuff anyway but yea.

 

It's 100% intentional that the cops are made out to be heroes and it's victorious until the final few minutes. Spike wanted to lift you, then drop you on your ass.

 

I think it's 100% fair and even important to critique the messaging of this film, regardless of what we believe Spike Lee wanted us to walk away with.

I really liked this movie, and I see the negative statements about the police sprinkled in here and there, but I still think Boots Riley's critiques are pretty spot on. Especially considering the actual history of these people. With the way this film was constructed, it definitely could've had a slightly different ending and, in the process, taken a much stronger, better stance on cops.

Not like this was the most subtle film at times anyways, lol.

 

If that’s Spike’s intent then why not include any of the myriad police shooting videos at the end? Or police protecting the nationalists at the rallies while beating protesters during BLM protests? Why not include memoriams for Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, etc, instead of just Heather Heyer?

The film absolutely goes to great lengths to portray their cop characters as heroes, save for the goofily racist one they band together to arrest at the end. But that’s not reality. The ending implies there’s still a ton of legwork to be done, but the entire film tries to tell you that the good police are the men for the job.

 

It’s a movie about infiltration. How one black cop infiltrated the KKK, but the KKK infiltrated the government. It’s about how nothing has changed and the stark realities between a slick movie and the harsh reality.

I agree with Riley’s points about the difference in the ways cops infiltrated black power organizations and white power organizations, and I think the comeuppance for the cartoonish cop is too easy. It’s not a perfect film. But I also think it’s aim is slightly different than what some come away with. Boots isn’t wrong, but I think there’s more going on than some are giving credit for.

 

I don't think we're supposed to agree with the police chief when he says J Edgar Hoover was right to call the Black Panthers a menace or whatever the word was

 

This was good, cast was super strong, and it was extremely entertaining

 

The one scene that felt out of place was the sting op to get the racist cop fired. Felt like that incident never actually happened.

 

One of the things that complicates appreciation of Lee's portrayal of the police in this movie is the recent revelation that he was paid to make a commercial for the NYPD. I am not sure where I stand with this one.

Leaving the theater, two people were talking and one said "it shows how extremes on both sides are bad". It really baffled me. At what point in the movie were the black protesters in any way doing something wrong, let alone being "just as bad".

 

ok, glad i wasn't the only one. that climax scene was so sudden to me, i didn't realize it either.

 

Their car caught fire and flipped.

 

ya im an idiot looking back on it. for some reason i thought it was just an empty car

 

That entire scene is shot in a weird way. I thought the woman still had the bomb on her and that they would be blowing up the wife and the three cops.

 

They showed her put the bomb on the car. Maybe it was quicker than I remember it being and was easily missed.

 

I also didn’t realize that she actually put the bomb under the car

 

I thought she tried to put the bomb in the mailbox, panicked when she heard something, went to the car, panicked when she heard the screeching, and was trying to run away entirely.

 

The bomb wouldn't fit in the mailbox, so she reaches under the car to put it there but looked like she panicked too soon and I wasn't 100% she put it under the car

 

She put it on top of the front passenger tire cover of the red bug. When the other car rolled up, it was literally right next to the driver's side window.