Halfway between Django Unchained and Three billboards, the new film by Spike Lee has all the ingredients of a blockbuster. A the height of the civil rights movement during the 70s in the US, Ron Stallworth, the first black American cop in Colorado, is going to try to make things move by organising an infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan in order to denounce its exactions. Three reasons to go watch this funny, intelligent and political film:
A total humiliation of racists
With its hilarious script, the film perfectly manages to ridicule the Ku Klux Klan members, represented by idiotic red necks (bordering on mental retards) and quite conceited. Pretending to be an extremist, Ron Stallworth contacts the small group by telephone and asks a white colleague, Flip, to replace him in order to meet those who fight for a white America. Quickly, Flip and Ron have a privileged relationship with the head of the Klan, whose look, hairdo and way of speaking are quite improbable, David Duke.
A very political film
Inspired by a true story, Spike Lee’s film has a very clear purpose: to denounce racist exactions still quite present in the United States. To smooth down the ultra-violent discourse of the Ku Klux Klan and avoid the murder attempt in preparation, Flip and Ron must row upstream to convince their white police chief that this mission is super important. The film presents racist propaganda archives dating back to that era, such as Birth of a Nation that show recently freed slaves seeking to rape white women and continues with real images from the Black Lives Matter movement in Trump’s America.
Verdict
You want to spend a happy moment, learn more about the dark hours of Afro-Americans during the 70’s and open your eyes on the exactions still present in the US ? Rush over there, you will not be wasting your time!
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