Blackkklansman Review/ List of 10 bad-ass blaxploitation films

3,4

Blackkklasman (2017)
Spike Lee 

Cast: Johan David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace, Alec Baldwin

Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, Agata Kulesza,  Jeanne Balibar, Boris Szyc

Length: 135 min

Country: United States

Based on the stranger-than-fiction real achievements of the first African American Colorado Springs undercover detective Ron Stallworth, Blackkklansman is probably Lee's most resonant film in years. An angry and fierce sermon against institutionalised racism, Blackkklansman is seasoned with biting humour and fuelled by pressing urgency. A takedown on the nauseating racism rooted in American culture and history, which scarily enough, didn't change much since the 70's. In one scene, Ron Stallworth expresses his scepticism to the idea that American people will ever elect an Afro-American man who believes in ideals of equality and fundamental human rights. It's a funny scene, but the laughter has a bitter taste since the electorate also voted for a dangerous man who shares the same views as racist white America (also known as "fine people") that supports the Ku Klux Klan.

It's surprising that Stallworth's absurd story wasn't made into a film before. Ron Stallworth wasn't' only the first black detective in Colorado, but also the first and only black detective to receive a Ku Klux Klan membership card.  In the midst of the 1970's civil rights movement, a black cop (played by Denzel Washington's son John David Washington) manage to infiltrate and expose this extremist hate group, by establishing contact via telephone conversations and sending his Jewish colleague Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) as his impersonator.
The story unfolds between a quick and amusing prologue and a harrowing and potent epilogue. It opens with a 50's public service announcement for white supremacists. Alec Baldwin is the voice of this blatantly racist propaganda who urges his audience to fight against the "insidious spread of integration". Lee chooses not to make him look threatening but rather pathetic.
Behind-the-scenes, we see a man gurgling, stammering and getting tangled up in his nonsense. On the contrary, the epilogue made of found footage of the Charlotteville March has a much harsher tone. A clear reminder of how little has changed and how seriously we need to tackle racial hatred in our everyday life.
Lee's intentions in diminishing, as well as, raising awareness around the most viciously racist cult in American history is not only welcome but necessary. However,  his approach feels often didactic. He hits his target, again and again, just in case someone in the audience is uncertain about the evilness of the Ku Klux Klan. It feels like he is spoon feeding his audience. Blackkklansman needed to be more subtle for me, a bit more like an undercover detective, than a radical activist.
In the same way that Stallworth tries to explain to his love interest  Patrice Dumas (Laura Herrier) that there are different and more ingenious ways to change the system, Blackkklansman should have been more confident in delivering his message without relying too much on Hollywood's narrative conventions. Even if extremely well-crafted, without Do the Right Thing's cinematographer Ernest R. Dickerson, Lee's style seems a bit generic and standardised. Anyone could have been behind the camera.
Blackkklansman is a crowd pleaser which is not necessarily a bad thing. When you have something so important to say, the capacity to reach a wider audience is required. It might be not the most exciting film from a stylistic point of view, but its eagerness for change and its fervent political gravitas makes this movie a must-see, as well as, a possible front-runner for the Oscars.
Lee's emphasis on the transformative power of films is what makes Blackkklansman more than a standard Oscar bait. It responds to the dark racist past of the American film industry.
In one scene we witness the members of the Ku Klux Klan watching with unstoppable enthusiasm Griffith's Birth of a Nation (1915) while chanting "White Power" in unison. Praised as an incredible technical achievement and for its revolutionary use of camera movements that shaped the cinematic language onwards, Birth of a Nation is ironically also the most racist films of all time. Black men (played by white actors in blackface) were portraits as unintelligent and uncontrollable sexual predators and angelic white women as theirs prey, while the Ku Klux Klan followers are shown as heroes and forces of transcendental purity. This dark chapter of film history gave a voice to the bigots, the narrow-minded nationalists and the white supremacists.
Oppositely, in one scene Ron and Patrice are happily debating whether Super Fly (1972) or Shaft (1971) is the best blaxploitation film ever made. Influenced by the Black Power movement, Blaxploitation was a subgenre of exploitation films produced in the early 70's where black characters and communities were the heroes and not the sidekicks or the victims. No Blaxploitation movie will be ever praised for its technical achievement as Birth of a Nation was. They were raw, low budget, poorly acted, directed and often they were reinforcing stereotypes rather than demolishing them. However, they were giving a voice to the African American audience whose for the first time felt represented and empowered. With their untamable hair, their bright coloured fashion and soul and funk music in the background, black beauty and culture were celebrated for the first time. For Spike Lee, the power of cinema relies on its ability to give a voice to the pariahs, which is the noblest use of cinema that I can think of.  If only Blackkklasman had just an edge of that rawness and the imperfections that made those films so unique, instead of the usual polished look of Hollywood products, it could indeed have become an iconic film for the ages.

Movies you might like if you like Blackkklansman:

Storm Warning (1951) by Stuart Heisler

Shaft (1971) by Gordon Parks

Mississippi Burning (1988) by Alan Parker

Do the Right Thing (1989) by Spike Lee

Niche List of the week

10 Bad-ass Blaxploitation films

In a short period between 1970 and 1975, African American directors were churning a significant amount of films featuring people of colour, often living the hard life, dealing with discrimination, drug abuse and prostitution. These films drew criticism and controversy for both smashing and reinforcing stereotypes. Black actors were often featured as pimps, gangsters and drug addicts, whereas the representation of women was often regressive and over-sexualised. Fuelled by the passionate activism of the 70's revolutions and the Black Power movement, Blaxploitation films were nonetheless an essential phenomenon in African American cinema which changed the way black characters were portrayed onscreen, as well as, having a massive impact in fashion and music. Their low production value, their amateurish use of the camera and the often poor acting, didn't stop these films to become huge hits at the box office as well as cults for the future generations. Part of the delight of watching these films lies in the fact that you are watching something raw and unpolished. This cinematic sensation didn't last long since soon many of these small independent productions found space into a more profitable mainstream industry.
Blaxploitation films reimagined all sort of genres (comedies, horror, action, gangster movies, avant-garde and even westerns) and even today is a fantastic influence for modern creation as Tarantino's Django Unchained and Jackie Brown.
Here the list of ten different examples of a subgenre that is significant as much as under-seen. (Ordered by years)

• Watermelon Man (1970) by Melvin Van Peebles

A hilarious and subversive social commentary on race in America by one of the lead directors of the Blaxploitation era, Melvin Van Peebles.
It follows the misadventure of a racist, bigot white businessman, who one day will wake up as a black man. Melvin said that his inspiration was Kafka's Metamorphosis. 

Bafta nomination to Estelle Parsons (Bonnie and Clyde) as she plays the confused wife. 

• Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song (1971) by Melvin Van Peebles

Following Watermelon Man, Columbia Pictures offered Van Peebles a three-picture contract which he refused so he could work on his new independent film. Entirely self-funded, he has written, directed, edited, co-produced and scored the film as well as and starring in it. He shot Sweetback in 19 days, performing all his stunts and appearing in several unsimulated sex scenes. Experimental and revolutionary, starting from his initial credits ("Starring the black community"), Sweetback had a divisive response. It remains an essential film in the history of African American cinema. 

• Shaft (1971) by Gordon Parks

Shaft meant a pivotal moment for Black representation. It was a huge commercial success, which marked a turning point for Blaxploitation films. The iconic and essential soundtrack by Isaac Hayes was awarded Grammy, Golden Globe and an Academy Awards. The film revolves around a private detective named John Shaft who is hired by a Harlem mobster to rescue his daughter from the Italian mafia who kidnapped her. 

• Super Fly (1972) by Gordon Parks Jr. 

Known mainly for its soundtrack by soul musician Curtis Mayfield,  Gordon Parks, Jr. follows the footsteps of his father with Superfly. Another huge hit at the box office which briefly knocked Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather off the top of the American box office charts. Hardly a well-made film, but considering that this film has been founded by two dentists and the director's father, you can't really complain. 

• The Harder They Come (1972) by Perry Henzell 

Reggae superstar Jimmy Cliff is Ivan, a rural Jamaican musician who journeys to the city of Kingston in search of fame and fortune. The Harder They Come is a little Jamaican gem from the 70's that brought reggae music for the first time to the American and international audience. The Harder They Come is a gritty and authentic as social commentary with a fantastic groovy soundtrack.

• Across 110th Street (1972) by Barry Shear

Across 110th Street is a gritty portrait of New York in the 70's, when crime, drug abuse and violence where a mundane event.  It's a class gangster movie starring Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto and with a fantastic soundtrack from Bobby Womack. Jim Harris goes with his partners to steal $300,000 from a Mafia-controlled policy bank in Harlem, disguised as police officers. The robbery goes tremendously wrong and results in the deaths of seven men. Black police officer William Pope is assigned to work the case with ageing Captain Frank Mattelli, a racist Italian-American cop.

• Coffy (1973) by Jack Hill

The third of four collaborations between exploitation filmmaker Jack Hill and the now iconic Pam Grier who in Coffy confirms to be the ultimate queen of blaxploitation movies. Here she plays nurse ‘Coffy’ Coffin seeking vigilante justice when her little sister is hospitalised by a smack pusher. Violence, nudity and drugs come with the package.

• Ganja & Hess (1973) by Bill Gunn

Ganja & Hess is an experimental horror film starring Duane Jones in his second lead role after The Night of the Living Dead (1968). The film follows the ventures of anthropologist Dr Hess Green, who becomes a vampire after his assistant stabs him with an ancient cursed dagger. Subsequently,  Green seduces his new lover, Ganja (Marlene Clark). Well received at Cannes, Ganja & Hess was a flop once realised but gained a cult status over the years. For many critics, it's considered one of the greatest African American films. Critic Scott Foundas described the movie as a "landmark 1973 indie that used vampirism as an ingenious metaphor for black assimilation, white cultural imperialism and the hypocrisies of organised religion."

• Foxy Brown (1974) by Jack Hill

Foxy Brown's character became the archetype of the blaxploitation heroine, which influences Tarantino's Jacquie Brown. Starring Pam Grier again under the direction of Jack Hill, Foxy Brown is another revenge thriller, with over the top violence and oversexualized women. In a time when African Americans were making progress politically, socially, and culturally,  Foxy Brown generated controversy around its “disturbing” portrayal of black womanhood, its stereotypes about violence and drug abuse in black culture. On the other hand, this film spoke directly to the woman power movement, by creating strong female characters who stand for themselves.

• Coonskin (1975) by Ralph Bakshi

Directed by iconoclast animator Ralph Bakshi, who was one of the first to make adult-orientated anti-Disney animated films, Coonskin is a blaxploitation film as much as a parody of blaxploitation films. Causing a tremendous amount of controversy for his caricature of black people, Coonskin has been labelled as racist. It then was reappraised as a smart, multi-layer satire on cultural stereotypes. No one is spared by Bakshi. He uses stereotypical and problematic caricatures for Italian, Jews, White Southerners and homosexuals.
It follows an African American rabbit, a bear and a fox who rise to the top of the organised racket in Harlem.