FBI informant Bill O'Neal infiltrates the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party for the Bureau and gathers intelligence on chairman Fred Hampton. Hampton's charisma and political clarity make the betrayal weigh on O'Neal's conscience more and more. Shaka King's film is about the price of survival inside a system designed to destroy you.
Judas and the Black Messiah is a 2021 drama, history and thriller film directed by Shaka King. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (2 narrative and 2 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Killers of the Flower Moon uses several of the same techniques.
Showing a character who uses the language of family, friendship or love purely to exploit people. A partner, son or colleague is only a tool for getting money or power.
How this film uses it
O'Neal works his way into the Panthers and forms real relationships with Hampton and other members. That is, his job as an informant works exactly the way the FBI works. It uses the language of community to destroy community organizations.
Where to see it
O'Neal at the Panthers' community breakfast program. He really is taking part, and he is betraying them at the same time. The film refuses to let either fact cancel the other.
Using lighting, framing, editing and acting to make a character's slide into extremism look exciting at first. You feel the pull yourself before the film shows you the consequences.
How this film uses it
King shoots Hampton's speeches with the tools of great cinema. There are close-ups of faces in the audience, low angles that give him physical presence and editing that builds each speech to its peak. You feel what O'Neal feels when he hears him.
Where to see it
Hampton's 'You fight racism with solidarity' speech. It is framed and cut so that the political argument is impossible to deny on screen. You understand exactly why O'Neal cannot fully give up his conscience.
Giving each time period or social world in the film its own set of colors. You always know where and when you are, and the colors carry a mood too.
How this film uses it
Sean Bobbitt's photography uses a warm, dark "Panther green" for the Panthers' clothing and key locations. The FBI gets silhouettes, brown earth tones and a touch of coldness. The color tells you where the film's sympathies lie.
Where to see it
The Panthers' headquarters against the FBI's offices. The Panther spaces carry the warm green. The FBI spaces are shot in brown earth tones with sharp contrast, which makes the surveillance machine feel bloodless.
Telling the story from the side of the person doing the harm, and letting you inside their head. You start to understand them, which is more uncomfortable than simply condemning them.
How this film uses it
This is O'Neal's story, and you see Hampton from inside it. The film puts you in the conscience of a man who knows what he is doing to Hampton and does it anyway. Its central moral question becomes what you make yourself part of in order to survive.
Where to see it
O'Neal providing the floor plan of Hampton's apartment. The camera stays on his face as he hands over the document that will make the raid possible. The film refuses to look away from that moment.
Questions
Judas and the Black Messiah: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Judas and the Black Messiah use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Judas and the Black Messiah (2021): False Kinship Exploitation, Radicalization Aestheticization, Period Color Separation and Perpetrator Perspective.
Who directed Judas and the Black Messiah?
Shaka King directed Judas and the Black Messiah, released in 2021.
What films are similar to Judas and the Black Messiah?
Films that share techniques with Judas and the Black Messiah include Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), The Godfather Part II (1974), Schindler's List (1993), The Matrix (1999).
