tallard Review of BlacKkKlansman

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Terribly dissappointed at film and annoyed at marketing

[5/10 · 12 September 2018]

I've generally liked Spike Lee films over the years. I had high expectations or this one, given the awards. Many negative reviews have already covered issues of pacing and writing and editing, which I generally agree with. As a person who's been an anti-racism activist my entire life, I felt this film was heavy handed and propagandist. If a woke person can feel this is heavy handed, imagine how those not on board with the topic can be totally feel propagandised, how futile is it in regards to effectiveness at creating social change? On the point of marketing, speaking points, and the ridiculous opening line about being based on a true story. So many reviews here state their amazement and how impressed they are at a Jewish person and a black person working together like this. This is a lie, there is no Jewish partner in the book, it is completely fictionalised. Furthermore, confounding race issues with religious issues is truly a non starter. But most of the film is fictionalised. The majority of the book is about his undercover work AGAINST black activists, which he spent over three years on. Given the actual facts as laid out in the book, this film really goes down in ratings. The false marketing is the saddest statement about our society. When people are more interested in virtue-signalling than the truth. Had the production values been better, at least it might have been enjoyable as a stand alone, without the pretence of being based on the book, but I kept falling asleep, idiot conversations droned on endlessly and completely took me out of the film. So it's a fail both on production values and TRUTH. The high rating says a lot about how important virtue-signalling has become in our society.