High marks for Spike Lee film probing Klan

By Sheldon Foster Merel

ENCINITAS, California — BlacKkKlansman, Spike Lee ‘s recently released film, covers  the early years  of the Black Power Movement in the 1970s , and  most importantly exposes  the Klu KLux Klan’s  insidious  agenda  of racism,  and Anti-Semitism in America.

BlacKkKlansman is  based  on the life of  Ron Stallworth who served as  the first African American detective  (with a full natural Afro head of hair,) to serve on the Colorado Springs Police force in 1970.   If I didn’t know this was a true story, I would have assumed it was fiction.

John David Washington, Denzel Washington’s son, is excellent in the role of Ron Stallworth.  The first assignment of his character,  Ron , was to  attend a  rally  of black college students  to determine if  their guest speaker , Malcolm X, might incite violence in the community. Pleased with his work on this project, the Police Chief  next asked Ron to devise a plan to infiltrate the local Klan..   As a black man, he could not obviously do this in person, so recruits  Flip Zimmerman,  a more seasoned  white fellow detective to be the undercover, and played very well  by Adam Driver.

Ron coaches his counterpart, Flip  how to realistically  respond as a white racist to remarks by Klan’s members.  The twist is  however that Flip is Jewish, and in spite of how he  might feel  in his guts when he hears Anti -Semitic slurs has to keep his cool under fire.

Posing on the phone as  a racist white man, Ron  arranges Flip’s first meeting with the local Klan. Ron is so convincing  as a white racist that he  eventually talks one-on-one with David Duke, the head of the National Klan.   When the police learn of a possible  threat against the life of Duke,  probably as a sweet act of vengeance, Ron, the black detective is assigned to  guard the life of one of America’s most bigoted racists and anti-Semites.

When this film was in its planning stages, its  producers could not possibly have known that’s its release this week would be in time for the first anniversary of the Klan’s 2017th Nazi style invasion of Charlottesville.   Spike Lee brilliantly weaves film clips  of the vicious riot into  the end of the movie  as well as President Trump’s incredibly stupid remark, suggesting that even some Nazis may be good people.

The movie is well paced with moments of tension, surprise and reality . The cast and acting is excellent, and even  Harry Belafonte  has a cameo appearance.

Outstanding credit goes to the visionary Spike Lee, who  directed the film and collaborated  with  Charlie Wachter, David Rabinowitz and Kevin Wilmot to write the screen play:

After the investigation into the Klan was closed, Stallworth kept  a secret of his role in it.  He later transferred to the Utah Department of Public Safety, where he worked as an investigator for nearly 20 years,.

In January 2006, Stallworth  gave an interview to the Deseret News of Salt Lake City, and related all the details of his infiltration and investigation of the KKK.    He disclosed that the investigation had revealed that several Klan members were active members of the US Armed Forces, including two at NORAD that controlled triggers for nuclear weapons. The pair were both reassigned, and Stallworth was told they went to “somewhere like the North Pole or Greenland.”

In 2014, Stallworth published a book, Black Klansman, about his experience investigating the KKK.  The book was brought to QC Entertainment by producer Shaun Redick to make it into a  film.    Spike Lee signed on as co-producer and director, and titled it BlacKkKlansman..   It had its debut at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2018, where it won the Grand Prix award, and was released on August 10, 2018. I recommend this movie as a “must see “  for Americans of every age.

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Merel, cantor emeritus at Congregation Beth Israel in San Diego, currently resides in Encinitas.