"Judas and the Black Messiah" Needs to Win ALL of the Awards

 

Appropriately debuting during Black History Month, almost exactly three years after the wide release of Black Panther, comes another great movie focusing on Black heroes and featuring the uber-talented Daniel Kaluuya in a supporting role (and Ryan Coogler behind-the-scenes) -- except this one's about American Black Panthers. Judas and the Black Messiah recounts the true story of how Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois branch of the famed civil rights organization was set up to be assassinated by the FBI working with a tactical unit of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office and Chicago police.

The film accurately depicts how Hampton's murder (at 21-years-old) was facilitated by federal informant William O'Neal. O'Neal, an African-American, was recruited for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's clandestine counter-intelligence program (COINTELPRO), designed to discredit and dismantle the Civil Rights Movement, after his arrest for car theft and impersonating a federal agent. Offered an opportunity to avoid a potential five-year prison sentence in exchange for gathering information that could be used to further FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's mandate to eradicate the Black Power movement, O'Neal effectively became a spy for the federal government. 

The film follows O'Neal as he insinuates himself into both the Black Panther Party organization, working his way up to security chief, and Hampton's life, revealing a snippet of a filmed interview with the actual Bill O'Neal before the credits and informing the viewer that he took his own life later that evening. 

Already named one of the 10 best movies of the year by AFI and nabbing nominations from the both the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild (the Oscars have been pushed back to April due to the coronavirus pandemic), Judas is poised to either become an awards-season favorite or the latest in a long line of Black movies to be snubbed in spectacular fashion. If there's any justice, Black Messiah will sweep all of the major awards this season. It's set the bar impossibly high for the rest of what Hollywood has to offer in 2021.

In light of the documented, widespread instances of police brutality against African-Americans participating in the many protests against racially-motivated murders of Black men at the hands of law enforcement throughout 2020, one of the overriding themes of Judas is sadly, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

Originally Posted February 7, 2021