Judas and the Black Messiah deserves its multiple Oscar nominations The real people behind the FBI’s war on the Black Panthers stand out in this provocative and moving film Tymon Smith Features writer, film and series reviewer 25 April 2021 - 00:01
The story of actors caught on different sides of the web of intrigue and paranoia that characterises the battles between total, consuming ideologies is an old one. The use of spies and collaborators by different powers in these ideological wars is one that resonates throughout 20th-century history from Northern Ireland to Latin America, SA and of course, the bastion of Western democracy, the US.
The Atlantic
Judas and the Black Messiah
The new crime thriller about a magnetic leader of the Black Panther Party is a sharp criticism of the FBI’s surveillance of social movements past and present.
February 13, 2021
When Black groups agitate for better living conditions and an end to systemic racism and police brutality, they are quickly labeled a threat to national security.Warner Bros.
“The Black Panthers are the single greatest threat to our national security. Our counterintelligence program must prevent the rise of a Black messiah from among their midst.” And so begins
Judas and the Black Messiah, with an ominous speech from the FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (played by Martin Sheen) in 1968. The film, which debuted yesterday in theaters and on HBO Max, is part crime thriller, part civil-rights historical drama. It tells the story of the rise of the Black Panther Party’s deputy chairman, Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), and the informant who helped the FBI orchestrat
The Atlantic
Judas and the Black Messiah Is an American Tragedy
Shaka King’s crime thriller about a Black Panthers leader and the man who betrayed him is set in the 1960s but resonates today.
Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton and Lakeith Stanfield as William O NealGlen Wilson / Warner Bros. / Everett Collection
Judas and the Black Messiah begins with William O’Neal (played by Lakeith Stanfield) getting ready for the only TV interview he ever gave about his role in the death of the Black Panthers leader Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). O’Neal appears sweaty and uncomfortable. Before he starts speaking, the director, Shaka King, cuts to archival footage of the Black-liberation movement in the 1960s speeches, songs, images of protest and police brutality that offer a moving yet chilling reminder of recent American history. Then the film cuts to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen) as he presents these scenes of resistance to his agents and decries the rise of Black nationali