Set in the 1970s, BlacKkKlansman is based on Ron Stallworth’s 2014 memoir “Black Klansman”, about how he—the first African American police officer in the Colorado Springs, CO police department—managed to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan.
Ron Stallworth (John David Washington, Ballers) grew up witnessing harassment and racial intolerance all his life, so when he interviews for a job at the C.S.P.D., he’s not surprised when the Chief Bridges (Robert John Burke) and Mr. Turrentine (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) drop racial slurs just to test his reactions. They want to see if he’s ready to become the Jackie Robinson of the Colorado Springs police force, and he passes. Stallworth is assigned to the records room, where he’s a folder jockey, retrieving case files for ungrateful officers like the bigoted Master Patrolman Andy Landers (Frederick Weller, In Plain Sight). Stallworth quickly grows tired of the monotony of the records room, and yearns to become an undercover detective.
Eventually Stallworth is given his chance. A former member of the Black Panthers, Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins, 24: Legacy), is coming to town to speak to members of the Black Student Union. The chief wants Stallworth to infiltrate the subversives in attendance and monitor their reactions to the speech, to see if they are planning anything violent. Stallworth is partnered with detectives Jimmy Creek (Michael Joseph Buscemi) and Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver, Girls), who listen in to the speech from a vehicle outside the venue. At the rally, Stallworth meets Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier, One Life To Live), the president of the Black Student Union, and there seems to be a bit of a spark between the two of them. Stallworth finds himself in a bit of an awkward situation at the rally—while he may not agree with the violent nature of some of the Black Power movement protests, he does connect with their overall message of equality. But Stallworth stays on task, proving his ability to assess a situation. He obtains the intel the chief was looking for, and is offered a more long-term position with Sergeant Trapp (Ken Garito) and his men.
One day while sitting at his desk, Stallworth notices a recruitment ad for the KKK, and decides to just randomly give them a call. To his surprise, the call goes through, and he’s talking with Walter Breachway (Ryan Eggold, The Blacklist, New Amsterdam), the head of the local chapter. Stallworth puts on his best white guy voice as he spouts out lots of hateful, racists comments—Breachway likes what he hears, and wants to meet. There’s one slight problem…if the Ku Klux Klan saw a black man walking their way, he’d never even make it to the door, let alone be welcomed as a member. The guys come up with a plan—Stallworth will communicate with the Klan over the phone, while Zimmerman will handle the in-person meetings, which isn’t going to be easy, because the Klan isn’t too fond of Jews either. So the cops put this plan into motion, infiltrating and monitoring the Klan’s activities, trying to learn more about their leader David Duke (Topher Grace), and seeing if the group is planning anything violent. While the always-inebriated Ivanhoe (Paul Walter Hauser, Kingdom) isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, fellow Klansman, and Breachway’s second-in-command, Felix Kendrickson (Jasper Pääkkönen, Vikings), is much more aware of what’s going on, and quickly grows suspicious of Zimmerman.
BlacKkKlansman has a very unique tone, constantly shifting from poignant, thought-provoking drama, to moments of laugh-out-loud humor, to tense thriller. It explores the very serious topic of hate groups and the violence they promote. It doesn’t shy away from the extremely sickening and hateful things these people say and do. We see the struggle that both Stallworth and Zimmerman must go through as they try to maintain their persona to fit in with the Klan, especially when it requires spewing every manner of hate speech and vitriol, and denying things that are part of their core beliefs and beings. The film also does an excellent job of portraying the struggle and racial profiling that people of color face every day. Even though Ron Stallworth is a cop, when he’s undercover and dressed in civilian clothes, other cops treat him like a criminal and a thug. When he tries to explain his situation, no one believes his claims of being an undercover cop—so when he’s trying to bust a criminal, to the onlooker he is the criminal, and they stop him and ultimately let the real perp go. Even within the force, there’s racist cops like Landers who treat Stallworth poorly, and use their positions of power to harass innocent black folks.
Despite this dark subject matter, the film also finds many moments of levity. Stallworth is proud of the fact that he is equally fluent in jive and white man, and so there’s a lot of humor when he’s on the phone doing his white guy voice. I literally laughed out loud the first moment we see Stallworth cold call the Klan and he breaks out into all these loud derogatory slang words and hate speech, and you can just see the rest of the squad room get quiet and look on with shock and bemusement. Adam Driver also has a lot of fun with his character, and there is a lot of humorous banter between Stallworth and Zimmerman.
While I enjoyed the film overall, it does get a little heavy handed with the social commentary at times. There are some pretty overt references to Trump, particularly when one character is referring to David Duke, stating that no one would ever vote someone so hateful to be President of the Unites States…it just came short of the character turning to the camera and giving a big wink. The film also opens with a scene from Gone With the Wind. Then a man named Dr. Kennebrew Beauregard (Alec Baldwin) appears in front of a film screen, and in an emotional Patton– or Citizen Kane– like speech starts yelling all kinds of racist slurs and statements as he gives an anti-integration/pro-segregation speech, growing increasingly frustrated as he stumbles over his lines, as footage of the notorious Birth of a Nation is projected onto his face. That said, the film closes with some very powerful news footage of the recent violence between a white supremacist group and Black Lives Matters folks at the Charlottesville protests, showing just how little has actually changed since the period depicted in the movie.
Universal’s 4K Ultra HD release looks and sounds amazing. The picture looks pristine (except for the opening with Alec Baldwin, but that seems like it was done on purpose). The color palette nicely evokes the period of the film, and darker scenes don’t show any signs of black crush. The Dolby Atmos soundtrack provides a wonderfully immersive experience that makes the viewer feel a part of the action on screen—this is especially noticeable in scenes like the speech at the Black Student Union, where you can hear the crowd clapping and shouting all around you.
The 4K Ultra HD release comes packed in standard UHD keepcase with a slipcover, and contains an insert with a code to redeem for a 4K Movies Anywhere digital copy of the film. Both the 4K and the Blu-ray discs contain the same minimal bonus material, which is unfortunately just a 5-minute featurette where the cast/crew talk about working with Spike Lee, and a 4-minute music montage/trailer.
What’s Included:
Film: (2:14:49)
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4K Ultra HD:
- 2160p / Widescreen 2.40:1
- Dolby Vision/HDR 10
- Audio: English Dolby Atmos, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 7.1 Dolby Digital
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
- 1080p / Widescreen 2.40:1
- Audio: English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Video Service, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 7.1 Dolby Digital
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
- 4K Digital copy redeemable via Movies Anywhere
Blu-ray:
Digital (for redemption deadline, see NBCUcodes.com):
Extras:
All of the bonus features can be found on both discs.
- A Spike Lee Joint (5:09)
The cast and crew talk about working with director Spike Lee. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with author Ron Stallworth (“Black Klansman: A Memoir”), producer Jordan Peele, and stars Topher Grace (“David Duke”), John David Washington (“Ron Stallworth”), Laura Harrier (“Patrice Dumas”), and Harry Belafonte (“Jerome Turner”). - BlacKkKlansman Extended Trailer Featuring Prince’s “Mary Don’t You Weep” (4:29)
Montage of scenes/stills from the film set to Prince’s “Mary Don’t You Weep”.
Final Thoughts:
BlacKkKlansman is an entertaining and thought-provoking drama that tells an unbelievably true story. It tackles a tough subject while also managing to add levity and humor, but in a way that doesn’t diminish the seriousness of the topic. It gets a little heavy-handed with the social commentary at times, but I still quite enjoyed it overall. Universal’s 4K release looks and sounds great, but is lacking in bonus material. Fans of the film will still want to pick it up for the stellar presentation, but new viewers may opt for a rental.
