What Isn’t In Judas And The Black Messiah Is Just As Important As What Is
A movie that centers a political giant such as Fred Hampton is inevitably going to generate a kind of public and political discussion that is wholly anathema to the Hollywood corporate environment. The masses of people, especially young Black Americans and activists of all races rallying under the banner Black Lives Matter, are hungry for political education. Unfortunately, Judas and the Black Messiah is largely devoid of the most critical political content that characterized Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party.
Of course, the definition of political content is itself subject to political struggle. A new wave of interest in the Black movement has produced an urgency among cultural artists to retell the story of the Black Panther Party.