BlackkKlansman!

Spike Lee makes movies that force you to think. He polarizes, he insults, he pokes the white bear and he doesnt give a rats ass what you think. Blackkklansman is one of those movies. Though I cant prove it, I think two white folks behind us were so offended they stormed out before the credits rolled with a loud LETS GO!. Maybe they were late for something, perhaps they were double parked, I have no idea, but something about that movie pissed them off.

BlackkKlansman is the story of a Colorado Springs police office, Ron Stallworth, who as the first black cop in the CSPD called a phone number one day that belonged to the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan and started a conversation. This conversation moved onto an undercover operation in which a white cop became Ron Stallworth in person as they worked to take down the KKK in Colorado.

Lee begins the movie with the end of Gone With The Wind where the traitorous Confederate wounded lay all over the ground and Dixie plays in the background. Lee also throws in a few snippets of Birth of a Nation that the local Klan watches with great glee. Hey Spike Lee knows his history.

BlackkKlansman explores the times of 1972 when this event took place. The Nixon posters, the Afros, the black power movement, the racism of the police towards the first black officer, and the fact that things aint changed much in 46 years. America First, white power, police racism. Its all here and any mention of it draws laughter from the audience who I assume are mostly hip to Spikes message. A scene where Ron expresses his disbelief America could EVER elect a white supremacist to the Presidency was ALL of us just two years ago. It drew lots of nervous laughter.

The acting is top notch, especially by John David Washington (yes THAT Washington family) as Ron Stallworth, Adam Driver as the Jewish undercover cop who infiltrates the Klan, and by Topher Grace as a sleaze dripping David Duke. The directing is top notch also. It covers the black power movement as well. It makes you long for those days. The message delivered by Kwame Ture' at a Black Student Union event rang as true listening to it now as it must have in 1972.

But the ending. That ending. Wow! While the movie has it humor, and it really does have some funny scenes, nothing shuts up a crowd like this ending did. There was dead silence, Schindlers List type silence, as the final two minutes played out. I wont spoil it because I want you too to be stunned into silence, but it will both make you sad and yet infuriate you also.

For those who storm out, well we know you dont like facts. The fact is Spike Lee has made perhaps the best movie of the year.