MovieChat Forums > Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) Discussion > Finally an acknowledgement of the BPP's ...

Finally an acknowledgement of the BPP's socialist history!

posted 3 years ago by MooseWrangler (25)
6 replies | jump to latest

It's great that the socialist aspect of the BPP has been acknowledged in the film and even fleshed out by showing the BPP trying to organize a multiracial working-class/marginalized group movement. The PBS documentary a few years ago awkwardly mentions its socialist roots for two minutes and then it is never brought up again. Also, I remember a documentary that was done for ABC or CBS ( I can't remember the network) a year or so after the PBS documentary and they cut entire lines out of a speech to hid Hampton's socialist leanings. Talk about Orwellian!

However, I didn't think it was developed enough. The movie was too focused on the state repression the Panthers' faced. I suppose that is the story they wanted to tell, but I would have loved them to develop on the Panthers "philosophy" more. Still a pretty good film and a great step in the right direction. Much appreciated. All power to the people!

[–] bigbadwolf666 (4707) 3 years ago

Because it also has to deal with current times.

Also it would make more sense his demise rather than focus on a movement and then have him abruptly end. It wouldn't have had a good sequence.

[–] MooseWrangler (25) 3 years ago

What do you mean by current events? Social movements on the left have always dealt with state repression, but there is more to it than simply that.

yeah I see what you mean but you could include both, right? I think it could be done. This is a great step forward though. I'm not dissing this movie by any means.

[–] bigbadwolf666 (4707) 3 years ago

BLM and the Trump Administration...

I think the film could only end one way and if the movie didnt slightly focus on Hampton it wouldn't have made sense. They did what they could as much as they could in a 2 hour movie.

[–] MooseWrangler (25) 3 years ago

I think it can center around Hampton and his role in the Chicago BPP. A lot of the dialogue/scenes in the film focus more on the theatrics and rhetoric. They don't provide substance for Hampton and the Panthers' critique, beliefs, reasons, and solutions for creating a socialist black liberation movement. State repression of the Black Panther Party is more widely known and again to say the only current event about BLM is the repression by the Trump administration is to miss the larger point-- that a black movement exists again to deal with issues facing Black Americans. I think the latter should be more of the focus than the former. Not to mention repression of black movements in the United States has occurred under both Democrats and Republicans.

[–] bigbadwolf666 (4707) 3 years ago

I thought the same thing till I realized this film isn't really about the BPP or Hampton. It's about Bill and his Betrayal. Hence the Title which is a biblical reference, not a reference to any of the characters. It's quite deep. When you realize that you realize it's not really a BBP movie or a Movie about Fred who isn't really the Lead but about Bill's Betrayal of him. I think the movie did enough and good about showing how oppressive and abusive the government was and how sinister fatalistic to an innocent man and his social causes. I think that is more important than The Black Panther Party as it shows the demonic side which we rarely ever see in films. Sure you can find documentaries, other BBP movies, and read about it but you can hardly find wide release films being so brutality honest on the barbaric corruption. Though Bill might not be a really important member in the history, I think this is more of the corrupted nature of the government using a racial black on black crime. Forcing him with sweets of freedom without jail. Disregarding his life and then paying him off like he was nothing. Displaying the hatred ways they have against blacks and slandering their causes in every which way.

The film is pinnacle because even though this happened many years ago. The nature of the environment is there today.

I think the reasons they don't provide such details is because they might not really know. Many things are still kept private. Such knowledge could be found if researched and the main purpose of the film wasn't as political as it appears to be intended even currently relevant. The Main purpose of the story is of Betrayal of a close Partner of a Messiah and how he was seduced into becoming a betrayer.

[–] MooseWrangler (25) 3 years ago

I understand the biblical reference and get all of that, but as I said before that type of infiltration, deception, corruption, and disregard for oppressed and marginalized people is not unique to the BPP or even the black freedom movement in general. It has occurred in all left social movements: women, black, the poor, labor, left political parties/campaigns, etc.

And there is a lot of academic research on the black freedom/black power movements from different perspectives including from people who were apart of it. You can also read the books of Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seal, H. Rap Brown, Elaine Brown, Eldridge Cleaver and associates like Stokley Carmichael and Angela Davis.

But yeah I suppose it is more of a story about William O'Neal and how they exploited him in his desperate condition. I'll have to rewatch it.