Release CalendarTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersEmmysSTARmeter AwardsSan Diego Comic-ConNew York Comic-ConSundance Film FestivalToronto Int'l Film FestivalAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

The Murder of Fred Hampton

  • 19711971
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 28m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
437
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
102,722
7,901
The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971)
DocumentaryBiographyCrime
A chronicle of Fred Hampton's revolutionary leadership of the Illinois Black Panther Party, followed by an investigation into his assassination at the hands of the Chicago Police Department.A chronicle of Fred Hampton's revolutionary leadership of the Illinois Black Panther Party, followed by an investigation into his assassination at the hands of the Chicago Police Department.A chronicle of Fred Hampton's revolutionary leadership of the Illinois Black Panther Party, followed by an investigation into his assassination at the hands of the Chicago Police Department.
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
437
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
102,722
7,901
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Howard Alk
    • Stars
      • Skip Andrew(archive footage)
      • Edward Carmody(archive footage)
      • James Davis(archive footage)
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Howard Alk
    • Stars
      • Skip Andrew(archive footage)
      • Edward Carmody(archive footage)
      • James Davis(archive footage)
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 12User reviews
    • 15Critic reviews
    • 86Metascore
  • See production, box office & company info
    • Awards
      • 1 win

    Photos

    The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971)
    The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971)
    Add photo

    Top cast

    Edit
    Skip Andrew
    Skip Andrew
    • Self - Attorney
    • (archive footage)
    Edward Carmody
    • Self - State's Atty Police
    • (archive footage)
    James Davis
    • Self - Police Officer
    • (archive footage)
    • (as James 'Gloves' Davis)
    Rennie Davis
    Rennie Davis
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    Fred Hampton
    Fred Hampton
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    Edward Hanrahan
    Edward Hanrahan
    • Self (Illinois State's Attorney)
    • (archive footage)
    • (as Edward V. Hanrahan)
    Brenda Harris
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    Deborah Johnson
    Deborah Johnson
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    Lawrence Kennon
    • Self - Cook County Bar Assn.
    • (archive footage)
    Don Matuson
    • Attorney in trial re-creation
    James Montgomery
    • Self - Attorney
    • (archive footage)
    Renault Robinson
    Renault Robinson
    • Self - Pres., Afro-American Police Assn.
    • (archive footage)
    Bobby Rush
    Bobby Rush
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    Ronald Satchel
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    • (as 'Doc' Satchel)
    Bobby Seale
    Bobby Seale
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    Tom Streeter
    • Self - Maywood Councilman
    • (archive footage)
    • Director
      • Howard Alk
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    More like this

    American Revolution 2
    6.6
    American Revolution 2
    Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking
    7.0
    Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking
    Freedom on My Mind
    7.8
    Freedom on My Mind
    Why Not?
    6.8
    Why Not?
    No Blood Relation
    6.9
    No Blood Relation
    Nothing But a Man
    7.9
    Nothing But a Man
    High Tide
    6.4
    High Tide
    Documenteur
    7.0
    Documenteur
    The True Adventures of Raoul Walsh
    7.7
    The True Adventures of Raoul Walsh
    An Inn in Tokyo
    7.5
    An Inn in Tokyo
    Lady from Chungking
    5.6
    Lady from Chungking
    The Flying Ace
    6.2
    The Flying Ace

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      My uncle was involved with this film. The cameraman, Mike Gray, had to go into hiding in CA for months with the film canisters because he fillmed the evidence of the real bedroom door with bullets going one way. He went behind the yellow police tape the day before Hanrahan's men switched to the false door that showed 2 way shooting.
    • Quotes

      Bobby Seale: You know what we are gonna do? We are going to defend ourselves. Because Huey P. Newton says that power - power is the ability to define phenomena and make it act in a designed manner. Power is the ability - to define phenomena - and make it act in a designed manner. What kind of phenomena? Social phenomena! What is a social phenomena? Black people, Mexican Americans, any kind of people, begins to learn that the social phenomena is that, in fact, U.S., racist, decadent, capitalist, imperialist America is a police state. And a police state exists here and that these pigs are doing nothing but protecting the average businessman and the demogoging politicians, protecting the exploiting system they got going. That, in fact, we are tire of it, we are sick of it. You've been brutalizing black people. You've been murdering and lynching us. Black people are tired of it!

    • Connections
      Featured in Underground (1976)

    User reviews12

    Review
    Review
    Top review
    8/10
    Chilling
    This documentary was released just a year and half after Black Panthers leader Fred Hampton and his colleague Mark Clark were killed in a raid by Chicago policeman, who were there ostensibly to serve a warrant at a pre-dawn hour. It's an operation that is now widely considered to have been a brutal political assassination for Hampton's revolutionary views, and because of that, the interviews, press clips, and speeches assembled here are incredibly important, and still chilling 51 years later.

    The first half of the documentary show the political movement Hampton was a part of without sugar-coating it, which I thought was important, even as I wished it had been pared down (especially that fictional "People's Court") and narration provided to better frame the context. Through speeches and discussions, though, we see that the movement was one that advocated an overthrow of the oppressive, capitalist system that had exploited the common man and people of color for centuries, in order to advance to the "utopia of the communist state" of being. It advocated for blacks arming themselves and then killing policeman who "bother the people." It acknowledged cases where revolution had led to the revolutionary becoming an oppressor himself, like François "Papa Doc" Duvalier in Haiti, and yet still held out hope for the communist systems in Cuba and China, and indeed there are posters of Mao Zedong on walls. That's certainly not something that's aged well, but can you blame people for searching for an alternative when they're in a system that brutalizes them? And this quote early on is one that eerily rings true today:

    "...racist, decadent, capitalist, imperialist America is a phony state. That a phony state exists here and that these pigs are doing nothing but protecting the avaricious businessman and the demagogic politicians, protecting the exploitative system that they got going. That, in fact, we are tired of it, we are sick of it. You've been brutalizing black people. You've been murdering and lynching them. Black people are tired of it!"

    We also see the movement trying to provide for the community, e.g. Setting up medical care that's more concerned with public health that it is about profit, something which has gotten far worse all these decades later. They were for education, and standing up for their legal rights in a system that was trampling them. They were also dead on in their assessment that oppressed people had been successfully turned against one another by their oppressor, e.g. Poor white people against black people, something remarkably still true today. It's also important to note that they were young - Hampton was just 21 - and look at the arc of his colleague Bobby Rush, who was 23 here, and who would go on to serve in Congress for 30 years, announcing his retirement just this year.

    Whatever you believe about the political views and lyrics to songs being chanted about killing policemen, no one should be executed over them, least of all in a country that prides itself on its freedom and democracy. You also have to understand where these views come from, and I wish the documentary had provided a little bit more by way of that.

    Where it delivers best, however, is in its second half. There's something spine tingling about hearing Fred Hampton telling those in the audience to say "I am a revolutionary" before going to bed at night in case they don't wake up, and then seeing soundless footage of his dead body being carried out on a stretcher and all the blood at his apartment. From there the cutting back and forth to the establishment's version of events, given by police officers and Cook County State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan, and those who were in the apartment under a hailstorm of bullets and those who examined the scene afterwards, is as mesmerizing as it is disturbing. The inconsistencies in the State's story, the horrifying actions by the police, and the depraved indifference to both life and the truth are all outrageous. The fact that the documentary was made, bearing witness to what happened, is important, and it's one I wish was included in U. S. history curriculums. Sadly, that may be illegal now in some states, which is also outrageous.
    helpful•0
    0
    • gbill-74877
    • Jul 16, 2022

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 1971 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Hampton
    • Production company
      • The Film Group, Chicago
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 28 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971)
    Top Gap
    By what name was The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971) officially released in Canada in English?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    View list
    List
    The Best Movies and Shows to Watch in August
    See the full list
    View list
    List
    Fall TV Guide: The Best Shows Coming This Year
    See the full list
    View image
    Photos
    Double Take: Celebrity Twins
    See the full list
    Back to top

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more access
    Sign in for more access
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Interest-Based Ads
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2022 by IMDb.com, Inc.