Judas and the Black Messiah – 7.5

This was a well-made dramatic reenactment of a little known chapter in the book of the FBI’s corrupt oppression of black leaders in the ’60s, a period we’ve visited in other recent films: Chicago 7, MLK/FBI, One Night in Miami. It didn’t, at least for me, go much below the surface. There was no ambiguity in the Panthers: we saw them only giving free breakfast to children. The FBI’s position, via a wasted Martin Sheen as J. Edgar Hoover, was little more than Blacks are bad and dangerous. We weren’t shown what made Fred Hampton a force at age 20. The story of Bill O’Neal, the Judas of the title, had the most potential, but we never really got inside him (and I often had trouble finding him in the crowd). The most interesting character was FBI agent Roy Mitchell, who recalled Jesse Plemons’s role in The Irishman. There were hints of moral doubt there that could have been explored. Maybe knowing how the story would end eliminated suspense, but somehow the emotional engagement wasn’t there. The contrast for me was with The Mangrove, where I was made to feel for the individuals. Here I felt I was watching a history lesson.