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===Critical response===
===Critical response===
On review aggregation website [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film has an approval rating of 97% based on 179 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''BlacKkKlansman'' uses history to offer bitingly trenchant commentary on current events -- and brings out some of Spike Lee's hardest-hitting work in decades along the way."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blackkklansman/|title=BlacKkKlansman (2018)|work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|publisher=[[Fandango Media]]|accessdate=August 10, 2018}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], which assigns normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 50 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/movie/blackkklansman|title=BlacKkKlansman Reviews|website=[[Metacritic]]|publisher=[[CBS Interactive]]|accessdate=August 10, 2018}}</ref> Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while [[PostTrak]] reported filmgoers gave it an 85% positive score.<ref name=opening/>
On review aggregation website [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film has an approval rating of 97% based on 180 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''BlacKkKlansman'' uses history to offer bitingly trenchant commentary on current events -- and brings out some of Spike Lee's hardest-hitting work in decades along the way."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blackkklansman/|title=BlacKkKlansman (2018)|work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|publisher=[[Fandango Media]]|accessdate=August 10, 2018}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], which assigns normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 50 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/movie/blackkklansman|title=BlacKkKlansman Reviews|website=[[Metacritic]]|publisher=[[CBS Interactive]]|accessdate=August 10, 2018}}</ref> Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while [[PostTrak]] reported filmgoers gave it an 85% positive score.<ref name=opening/>


[[Peter Bradshaw]] of ''[[The Guardian]]'' gave the film three out of five stars, writing: "It's an entertaining spectacle but the brilliant tonal balance in something like Jordan Peele's satire ''Get Out'' leaves this looking a little exposed. Yet it responds fiercely, contemptuously to the crassness at the heart of the Trump regime and gleefully pays it back in its own coin."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/14/blackkklansman-review-spike-lee-adam-driver-cannes-2018|title=BlacKkKlansman review – Spike Lee's clanging rebuke to the New Trump Order|work=[[The Guardian]] |last=Bradshaw |first=Peter |date=May 14, 2018 |accessdate=May 20, 2018}}</ref> For ''[[IndieWire]]'', David Ehrlich gave the film a grade of "B+" and wrote that it is "far more frightening than it is funny" and "packages such weighty and ultra-relevant subjects into the form of a wildly uneven but consistently entertaining night at the movies."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.indiewire.com/2018/05/blackkklansman-review-spike-lee-cannes-2018-1201964558/ |title=‘BlacKkKlansman’ Review: Spike Lee Detonates a Funny and Righteously Furious ‘Fuck You’ to Trump — Cannes 2018|work=[[IndieWire]] |last=Ehrlich |first=David |date=May 14, 2018 |accessdate=May 20, 2018}}</ref> Alex Hudson from ''[[Exclaim!]]'' gave the film a rating of 9/10 and said: "Spike Lee's latest is all about America's current political moment, and the film's central concerns — hateful rhetoric dressed up as "pride," prejudiced cops abusing their power — feel viscerally relevant."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hudson |first1=Alex |title='BlacKkKlansman' Review: Condemnation of 1970s Racism Feels Viscerally Relevant |url=https://exclaim.ca/film/article/blackkklansman_review_condemnation_of_1970s_racism_feels_viscerally_relevant-directed_by_spike_lee |publisher=Exclaim! Media |date=August 2, 2018|accessdate= August 2, 2018}}</ref>
[[Peter Bradshaw]] of ''[[The Guardian]]'' gave the film three out of five stars, writing: "It's an entertaining spectacle but the brilliant tonal balance in something like Jordan Peele's satire ''Get Out'' leaves this looking a little exposed. Yet it responds fiercely, contemptuously to the crassness at the heart of the Trump regime and gleefully pays it back in its own coin."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/14/blackkklansman-review-spike-lee-adam-driver-cannes-2018|title=BlacKkKlansman review – Spike Lee's clanging rebuke to the New Trump Order|work=[[The Guardian]] |last=Bradshaw |first=Peter |date=May 14, 2018 |accessdate=May 20, 2018}}</ref> For ''[[IndieWire]]'', David Ehrlich gave the film a grade of "B+" and wrote that it is "far more frightening than it is funny" and "packages such weighty and ultra-relevant subjects into the form of a wildly uneven but consistently entertaining night at the movies."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.indiewire.com/2018/05/blackkklansman-review-spike-lee-cannes-2018-1201964558/ |title=‘BlacKkKlansman’ Review: Spike Lee Detonates a Funny and Righteously Furious ‘Fuck You’ to Trump — Cannes 2018|work=[[IndieWire]] |last=Ehrlich |first=David |date=May 14, 2018 |accessdate=May 20, 2018}}</ref> Alex Hudson from ''[[Exclaim!]]'' gave the film a rating of 9/10 and said: "Spike Lee's latest is all about America's current political moment, and the film's central concerns — hateful rhetoric dressed up as "pride," prejudiced cops abusing their power — feel viscerally relevant."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hudson |first1=Alex |title='BlacKkKlansman' Review: Condemnation of 1970s Racism Feels Viscerally Relevant |url=https://exclaim.ca/film/article/blackkklansman_review_condemnation_of_1970s_racism_feels_viscerally_relevant-directed_by_spike_lee |publisher=Exclaim! Media |date=August 2, 2018|accessdate= August 2, 2018}}</ref>

Revision as of 16:33, 11 August 2018

For the 1966 film, see The Black Klansman. For other uses, see Black Klansman.
BlacKkKlansman
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySpike Lee
Screenplay by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyChayse Irvin
Edited byBarry Alexander Brown
Music byTerence Blanchard
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • May 14, 2018 (2018-05-14) (Cannes)
  • August 10, 2018 (2018-08-10) (United States)
Running time
135 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$15 million[2]
Box office$3.6 million[3]

BlacKkKlansman is a 2018 American biographical crime film co-written and directed by Spike Lee, based on the autobiographical book Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth. The film stars John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, and Topher Grace. The film is produced by Lee, Raymond Mansfield, Shaun Redick, Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, and Jordan Peele. Set in 1979 Colorado Springs, the plot follows an African-American detective who sets out to infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan.

Redick purchased the film rights to the book in 2015, and Lee signed on as director in September 2017. Much of the cast joined the following month, and filming began in New York State.

BlacKkKlansman premiered on May 14, 2018, at the Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or and won the Grand Prix. It was released in the United States on August 10, 2018 and received acclaim from critics, with many praising the performances (particularly Washington and Driver) and timely themes, as well as noting it as a return to form for Lee.

Plot

The film opens on the set of Gone with the Wind, showing hundreds of dead soldiers during the American Civil War. It then cuts to a scientific explanation of white racial superiority by Dr. Kennebrew Beaureguard (Baldwin).

In 1979, Ron Stallworth is hired as the first black detective in Colorado Springs, Colorado.[4] Stallworth is initially assigned to work in the records room, where he faces mistreatment from his coworkers. Stallworth requests to transfer to go undercover, and is assigned to a local rally by civil rights leader, Kwame Ture (Hawkins). At the rally, Stallworth meets Patrice Dumas (Harrier), the president of the black student union at Colorado College.

After the rally, Stallworth is reassigned to the intelligence division. While reading the paper, he finds an advertisement to join the Klu Klux Klan. Stallworth calls and pretends to be a white man, and speaks with Walter Breachway Eggold, the president of the Colorado Springs chapter. Stallworth recruits his white coworker, Flip Zimmerman (Driver), to act as him when he meets with the Klu Klux Klan. Zimmerman attends a meeting and meets Walter, along with the more radicalized member Felix Kenderson. Walter is excited to recruit new members, while Felix is more wary of the new members. Zimmerman also speaks with another member named Ivanhoe, who cryptically refers to an upcoming attack.

Zimmerman and Stallworth continue to cultivate their relationship with the local Klu Klux Klan chapter. Under the pretense of expediting his membership, Stallworth calls David Duke, with whom he begins regularly conversing with. Meanwhile, the local chapter becomes increasingly suspiscious of Zimmerman, who has several inconsistencies with Stallworth in his stories. Stallworth begins dating Patrice, but does not admit to being a police officer to her.

David Duke decides to visit Colorado Springs for Stallworth's induction into the Klu Klux Klan. Against his will, the real Stallworth, a black man, is assigned to provde security for Duke. After Zimmerman, masquerading as Stallworth, is initiated, Felix's wife Connie leaves the ceremony to place a bomb at a civil rights rally. Stallworth realizes her intentions, and alerts local police officer. Felix directs Connie to use their back up plan of placing the bomb at Patrice's house. Before Connie can place the bomb, Patrice arrives home, causing Connie to run and place the bomb under her car instead. Stallworth arrives at the scene and tackles Connie, but is immediately detained by uniformed police officers, despite his protests to being an undercover police officer. Zimmerman arrives and frees Stallworth. Meanwhile, Felix and Ivanhoe arrive and park next to Patrice's car, and, thinking the bomb is on the porch, detonate it, killing themselves in the process.

Police Chief Bridges (Burke) congratulates the team for their successful operation against the Klu Klux Klan, but orders them to discontinue. As he is packing up, Stallworth receives a call from David Duke. Before hanging up, Stallworth informs Duke that he has been helping a black man join the Klu Klux Klan. After arriving at home, Patrice and Stallworth discuss their future together, only to be interrupted by a knock on the door. They go outside, and see a large flaming cross surrounded by Klan members.

The film closes with video from the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, including footage of the white supremacists, counter-protesters, the car attack, and President Trump's statements. The film ends with a memorial to Heather Heyer, the car attack victim, and an upside-down American flag.

Cast

Production

Development and casting

In 2015, Shaun Redick, a film producer, brought the book Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth to QC Entertainment where they then began adapting it into a film screenplay. After the success of the film Get Out in 2017, which QC also helped produce, QC again teamed up with Jason Blum's company Blumhouse Productions and Jordan Peele's company Monkeypaw Productions to help produce the film.[5][6]

In September of that year, Spike Lee signed on as director and John David Washington was in negotiations to star.[7] The following month, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace, and Corey Hawkins had joined the cast.[8][9][10][11] In November, Paul Walter Hauser, Jasper Pääkkönen, and Ryan Eggold joined the cast[12][13][14] with Ashlie Atkinson joining a month later.[15]

Filming

Filming began in October 2017.[16] Ossining, New York was one location used during October.[17]

Release

Lee and the cast at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival

On April 12, 2018, the film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered on May 14, 2018.[1][18] It is scheduled for a United States release on August 10, 2018, which was chosen to coincide with the one year anniversary of the Charlottesville rally.[19]

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada, BlacKkKlansman was released alongside Slender Man and The Meg, and is projected to gross around $10 million from 1,512 theaters in its opening weekend.[20] It made $670,000 from Thursday night previews.[2]

Critical response

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 97% based on 180 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "BlacKkKlansman uses history to offer bitingly trenchant commentary on current events -- and brings out some of Spike Lee's hardest-hitting work in decades along the way."[21] On Metacritic, which assigns normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 50 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[22] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it an 85% positive score.[2]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film three out of five stars, writing: "It's an entertaining spectacle but the brilliant tonal balance in something like Jordan Peele's satire Get Out leaves this looking a little exposed. Yet it responds fiercely, contemptuously to the crassness at the heart of the Trump regime and gleefully pays it back in its own coin."[23] For IndieWire, David Ehrlich gave the film a grade of "B+" and wrote that it is "far more frightening than it is funny" and "packages such weighty and ultra-relevant subjects into the form of a wildly uneven but consistently entertaining night at the movies."[24] Alex Hudson from Exclaim! gave the film a rating of 9/10 and said: "Spike Lee's latest is all about America's current political moment, and the film's central concerns — hateful rhetoric dressed up as "pride," prejudiced cops abusing their power — feel viscerally relevant."[25]

Accolades

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipients Result
Cannes Film Festival[26] 19 May 2018 Grand Prix Spike Lee Won
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury Special Mention Won

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "The 2018 Official Selection". Cannes. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 10, 2018). "'The Meg' Bigger Than Expected At $36M…But Is It Big Enough? – Midday Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  3. ^ "BlacKkKlansman (2018)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
  4. ^ Taylor, Matt (May 30, 2014). "The Black Undercover Cop Who Infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado". Vice.com. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
  5. ^ Kit, Borys (September 8, 2017). "'Black Klansman' KKK Thriller in the Works From Spike Lee, Jordan Peele (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  6. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (October 25, 2017). "Adam Driver Joins Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman'". Deadline. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  7. ^ Kroll, Justin (September 8, 2017). "Spike Lee, Jordan Peele Team Up on KKK Crime Thriller 'Black Klansman'". Variety. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  8. ^ McNary, Dave (October 25, 2017). "Adam Driver Joins Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman' Thriller". Variety. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  9. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (October 25, 2017). "Adam Driver Joins Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman'". Deadline. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  10. ^ Busch, Anita (October 31, 2017). "Topher Grace Joins Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman'". Deadline. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  11. ^ Galuppo, Mia (October 31, 2017). "Corey Hawkins Joins Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  12. ^ N'Duka, Amanda (November 9, 2017). "'I, Tonya' Actor Paul Walter Hauser Joins Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman'". Deadline. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  13. ^ Kroll, Justin (November 16, 2017). "Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman' Adds 'Vikings' Actor Jasper Paakkonen (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  14. ^ Busch, Anita (November 17, 2017). "Ryan Eggold, Who Played Fan Favorite Tom Keen In 'The Blacklist,' Joins Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman'". Deadline. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  15. ^ N'Duka, Amanda; Patrick Hipes (December 4, 2017). "Pedro Pascal Joins Barry Jenkins' 'If Beale Street Could Talk'; Ashlie Atkinson Cast In 'Black Klansman'". Deadline. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  16. ^ Barboza, Craigh (November 20, 2017). "Spike Lee Talks 'Black Klansman' Movie and Why He Regrets the Rape Scene in 'She's Gotta Have It' Film". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  17. ^ Matsuda, Akiko (October 27, 2017). "Spike Lee filming movie in Ossining". Lohud.com.
  18. ^ Debruge, Peter; Elsa Keslassy (April 12, 2018). "Cannes Lineup Includes New Films From Spike Lee, Jean-Luc Godard". Variety. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  19. ^ Siegel, Tatiana; Gardner, Chris (May 14, 2018). "Cannes: Spike Lee's 'BlacKkKlansman' Draws 10-Minute Ovation". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  20. ^ McClintock, Pamela (August 8, 2018). "Box-Office Preview: Big-Budget 'The Meg' Heads for Tepid $20M-Plus U.S. Debut". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
  21. ^ "BlacKkKlansman (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  22. ^ "BlacKkKlansman Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  23. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (May 14, 2018). "BlacKkKlansman review – Spike Lee's clanging rebuke to the New Trump Order". The Guardian. Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  24. ^ Ehrlich, David (May 14, 2018). "'BlacKkKlansman' Review: Spike Lee Detonates a Funny and Righteously Furious 'Fuck You' to Trump — Cannes 2018". IndieWire. Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  25. ^ Hudson, Alex (August 2, 2018). "'BlacKkKlansman' Review: Condemnation of 1970s Racism Feels Viscerally Relevant". Exclaim! Media. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  26. ^ Debruge, Peter (May 19, 2018). "Japanese Director Hirokazu Kore-eda's 'Shoplifters' Wins Palme d'Or at Cannes". Variety. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
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