How is it there’s no thread for what could be the best film of 2021?
Fred Hampton was many things - community activist, brilliant orator, and Vice-Chairman of the Illinois Black Panthers. He wasn’t so much concerned with Black identity politics as he was economic disparity, and reached out to Latino street gangs and even poor White communities, establishing food and clothing programs that served hundreds if not thousands of the poorest kids in Chicago. All this before he was 21. In 1969 he was murdered in a “raid” of Panther HQ by the Chicago police, spurred on by the FBI. A subsequent investigation showed that the police fired 99 times during the “battle”. The Panthers fired once.
“Judas” is ostensibly the story of Bill O’Neal, the FBI informant who served as Hampton’s head of security and helped set him up. But it’s really Hampton’s story, and
Daniel Keluuya as Hampton steals every scene he is in.
The more things change…
Available on HBO Max and in theaters (I think)