Blackkklansman: A Well Made Film
I was very interested when I found out we were going to watch Blackkklansman for this week. I distinctly remember the first advertisements that came out during the runup to the release of the film. My first impression of the film from the advertisements was that it was going to be a buddy cop film about fighting the bumbling KKK. This primarily stemmed from the upbeat music, fast editing and lack of any KKK members shown on screen. After sitting down to watch the film in its entirety, my approximation wasn’t entirely wrong.
The film starts very slow and builds its comedic angle by slowly sprinkling jokes here and there. I really enjoyed the purposefully dated OJ praising, it was positioned in a way that felt natural in conversation but also provided a good punchline by the end. It never reached buddy cop level since Ron and Flip took turns with their screen time, rarely ever sharing the screen but rather the actions of one impacting the other. Despite this being a comedy leaning film, I was surprised how competent the KKK were throughout the film. You certainly had your jokers of the group like Ivanhoe (which might be a pun on itself) but the rest of the group were shown to be methodical, intelligent, racist people which I find be scarier than any cross burning. Even Felix who the group considers partly deranged is able to emotionally manipulate his wife into committing a felony crime on his behalf.
I applaud this movie for finding a balance between activism and casual cinema enjoyment. Many activist films put activism first before the actual movie with many environmental films being the worst offenders with their introductory “humans messed up and now we are living with it” prologs. The main difficulty being that the narrative usually disregards these elements to ensure the story is told properly. Blackkklansman was able to weave it into the narrative through character interactions and reactions to different events, I would watch this film again if given the chance.
Hey Alex!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the balance, and I actually talked about that too! It helped us see a serious topic in a way that wouldn't bum us out, but still forced us to see how wrong things were. I felt that Ron and Flip actually formed a good bond, seeing as they were both in a minority hated by the KKK. But yes, you are right in that they don't share as much screen time. Honestly that's probably because Flip was the one actually under the sheet, which wouldn't be a very good place for Ron to be.
Great job! :)
- Chloe Kowalyk
Hi Alex, I really enjoyed your blog post. I have never heard of this film before this class, but I also really enjoyed it. I am glad that it never reached the buddy cop aspect because I feel like it would have taken away from the story that the film was trying to tell. I also was surprised at how capable the members of the KKK were. The comedic moments throughout the film were definitely some of my favorite and I 100% agree on how well this film balanced between activism and cinema. Great Job!
ReplyDeleteHi Alex!
ReplyDeleteI don't remember the ads that well from when this movie came out, but I hadn't thought of the balance between an activism/commentary film and being a fun watch. I think being a fun movie to watch helps audiences learn more through the activism elements because they are paying more attention to the film.
I think the movies ending also helps a lot with it as an activism film. Many activism films usually end with the heroes living in their better world. Some that come to mind are Princess Mononoke and Wall E. This film ends with showing that even fifty years later, we are still dealing with the same problem that was addressed in the film.
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