Taking place in the 1970s, Ron Stallworth is the first black guy to be a police officer in Colorado Springs, CO. The first assignment Ron takes on is to infiltrate the Klu Klux Klan with the help of another police officer, who is Jewish, Flip Zimmerman. Ron manages to have a phone conversation with David Duke, the Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan, by pretending he’s a white guy. Ron also gets involved with Patrice Dumas, the president of the black student union at Colorado College.
Blaine: Ron Stallworth wanted his story to be told because he thought it was unique and it’s a story people would have trouble believing. Ron wanted to explain the details on how much was put into the case and what he went through personally in terms of his career. Ron Stallworth took some of the records on the case even though he wasn’t supposed to because all the records were supposed to be destroyed and he would have been fired if he got caught, but that didn’t scare him. Ron wanted his story to get out there and he waited a while till he felt it was safe to publish the story. A lot of the stuff that was in those records Ron put into his book and it was published in 2014. The next thing Ron wanted was to have book turned into a movie. Monkeypaw Productions got a hold of Ron Stallworth and bought the rights so they could be the ones to turn it into a movie. The studio’s founder, Jordan Peele (Get Out) was believed to direct the project by Ron, but he wasn’t and Ron couldn’t understand why. Jordan believed “BlacKkKlansman” was a project more for Spike Lee to direct and Ron was all for that, being a big fan of Spike Lee’s work. Spike Lee knew who Jordan was, after seeing his work, but he didn’t know they both had met before. When Jordan was attending Sarah Lawrence College, Spike Lee visited one day to give a speech. Jordan asked Spike if he was interested in doing “BlacKkKlansman” and Spike wanted to know if the story was based on fact after Jordan explained the plot.
“BlacKkKlansman” took four years to develop and there couldn’t have been a better time to release the movie than 2018 because with Trump in office it shows the type of President the KKK or Neo Nazis have been trying to get elected and acts like they are good people. “BlacKkKlansman” is sending a message right at Trump. That was the number one reason Spike Lee took on the project.
Spike Lee has had a working relationship with Denzel Washington and now Spike gets to work with Denzel’s son, John David. Spike has known John his whole life through Denzel and John didn’t have to audition for “BlacKkKlansman” because Spike believed in him. John couldn’t believe he never heard about Ron Stallworth’s story because he had studied a lot about black history in college. Of course Ron’s story was classified until it was safe for him to publish it into a book. There was a lot of useful information in Ron Stallworth’s book like how he got into the force, became a detective, what he was trying to pursue. John kept getting deeper and deeper into who Ron was through his book. John wanted to show Ron’s spirit through his performance.
Ron’s love interest, Patrice Dumas, did not exist. Spike saw Laurie Harrier in “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and thought she was a good actress. Spike tracked her down and she couldn’t believe she was talking to Spike Lee on the phone. Spike told Laura he wanted to meet with her. Laura was on vacation when she got the call and it was very unexpected. Laura didn’t know what kind of movie she was auditioning for when she met with Spike, but it didn’t matter to her. Laura looks up to Spike Lee and this was a huge experience for her. Laurie based her performance on the women of the Black Panther movement like Angela Davis. Laurie even got to meet Angela in person thanks to Spike. Laurie also read Angela Davis’ book and watched a lot of documentaries. There were a lot of powerful women during this movement and it was really exciting for Laurie to be apart of a project that shows a little bit of their side of the story because she felt there aren’t enough stories being told about them.
Like everyone else, Adam Driver thought this was an unbelievable story when Spike Lee called him about the project. Adam liked his character, Flip Zimmerman, Ron’s partner, because he’s open minded when it comes to change. Ron Stallworth never visited the set while they were shooting the film. Adam Driver wanted to meet with Ron to talk to him about Flip Zimmerman and he was the only actor who asked Ron questions. The thing about Flip Zimmerman was that he wasn’t Jewish. He is in the film, but he wasn’t in real life. Flip, the character, I would say is someone who is positive about who he is in life. He’s strong to remain calm while going undercover while being surrounded by dangerous people who hate his culture. He’s Jewish, but he doesn’t compare himself to others who are of the Jewish faith.
Topher Grace and Spike Lee share the same agent and she demanded Spike check Topher out. Topher didn’t like doing research on David Duke because David is a terrible man and everything about him disgusted Topher. He spent a month doing research. He read Duke’s book and watched interviews. Spike Lee was a great leader for Topher and even though Topher felt uncomfortable playing one of the most hated men, still Spike Lee would always cheer him up. Spike Lee was sending a message through this film and he let Topher know he was doing a good job by showing what a terrible man David Duke is. None of the white actors who were playing racists felt comfortable saying awful things through the dialog. In real life they wouldn’t say those things. The actors playing the racists really hated these characters. They didn’t like saying the N word. Shows how polite they are compared to their characters. Ron Stallworth had fun tricking David Duke into thinking he was a white guy through their phone calls and making him look like a fool in the end.
My dad’s a fan of the series, “The Wire”, and one of the actors, Isiah Whitlock Jr. is best known for saying the line “Sheeeeeeeee-it!” Isiah has a cameo at the beginning of “BlacKkKlansman” interviewing Ron and is responsible for hiring him. Isiah was trying to say “Sheeeeeeeee-it!” in “BlacKkKlansman”. It’s kind of an inside joke for people who watch “The Wire” like my dad.
Close to the end, the KKK is trying to put an end to Patrice’s life by blowing her up. Felix’s wife, Connie, is in charge of putting the bomb in Patrice's mail box, but Patrice shows up and Connie can’t let Patrice see what she is up to. Ron rushes to Patrice's place and tries to stop it. He catches Connie and tries to stop her. Then white cops show up and don’t believe him when he says he’s a cop too. Connie lies by saying he was trying to rape her not just to get him off her back, but also because she is a racist. Ron gets beat up by the white cops. Patrice and her friend run out the door and see Ron being bullied by cops. Felix arrives with a few others and triggers the bomb. Thing is when Connie couldn’t get the bomb inside Patrice’s mailbox, she went with the car instead. Felix and the others are right next to the car and they are killed in the explosion. My dad says in all these movies that are based on fact you can tell at the end, when they are trying to make a dramatic point, and dad always thinks to himself “I bet that never happened.” Even though the Patrice character is not a real person and that didn’t happen, still the intensity of that the scene gives you is really something because you don’t want the KKK to succeed in assassinating Patrice.
“BlacKkKlansman” is a powerful message with some great humor in it as well. For one the phone calls where Ron is pretending to be a white guy racist. Even the characters in the film, Ron, Jimmy, Flip and Trapp, are sharing a laugh while listening to David Duke being fooled. Ron Stallworth was blown away by how “BlacKkKlansman” turned out and he saw it three times while it was in the theater. Spike Lee didn’t care if “BlacKkKlansman” was going to be a hit or not because it was all about making history by sending a powerful message. People in one theater would sit in their seats the entire time while watching “BlacKkKlansman”. It had a big effect on the white people. After the movie was over, the white people would hug the blacks in the audience.
My rating on “BlacKkKlansman” is five out of five stars
