79
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottWhat is clear from this sober yet electrifying film is that the power of the Panthers was rooted in their insistence — radical then, radical still — that black lives matter.
- 90SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirWhat we see in Stanley Nelson’s urgent and necessary documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution is the story of an organization that meant many different things to many different people, and that changed so dramatically during five years or so in the national spotlight that it could almost be described as reshaping itself month by month and putting forward a distinctive face at almost every moment.
- 88RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonRogerEbert.comOdie HendersonThe film avoids hagiography, and in doing so, brings out the undeniable humanity of its subjects.
- 80Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVillage VoiceAlan ScherstuhlThe film, with its traditional mix of talking heads and vintage footage, does not try to hide the Panthers' advocacy of violence.
- 80Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfStrikes an intelligent balance between funk-scored pride and a more universal story of activism threatened by in-fighting and accidental celebrity.
- 75The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayStanley Nelson’s absorbing, provocative documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution measures how much and how little has changed since Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale co-founded the Panthers in Oakland in 1966.
- 75New York PostFarran Smith NehmeNew York PostFarran Smith NehmeThis is mostly a sad and bloody tale, as the Panthers are decimated first by the machinations of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, and then by dissension in their own ranks.
- 70The New YorkerAnthony LaneThe New YorkerAnthony LaneWith no narrator to shepherd us along, the movie feels noisy and restless. The period is revived by a wealth of songs on the soundtrack, and by the sleek and succulent Panther look.
- 63Slant MagazineOleg IvanovSlant MagazineOleg IvanovIt both feeds off of and perpetuates nostalgia for a time when the nation seemed more politically conscious and therefore more capable of creating lasting social change.
- Not a particularly exceptional movie in form, but as a thorough record it is extraordinary.