Random Acts of Observation

I’ve been trying to catch up on some of the films that came out in the last few months of the year, as the internet elves make them available.

Recently watched BlackKKlansman, which was to my mind a truly extraordinary film. Well written, well directed, well acted. Spike Lee may have produced his best film yet with this. From the opening sequence, which was an assault of racist thoughts and images, to the final Black Power image, it was riveting. What I found fascinating was the way that he makes the ugliness and violence of the Klan so clear, and yet at the same time makes it impossible to see any of the Klansmen as positive characters - they are (with one important exception) shown as incompetent, full of insecurities, paranoid, and so on. It’s reminiscent of a similar choice made by Mel Brooks when making The Producers. The exception is, of course, David Duke. By making him appear not all that much worse than many of the other white men in the story, Lee reminds us that yes, the ridiculous pageantry and naked hatred can be disguised and made to seem electable.

While the undercover penetration of the Klan was the main plotline, the mere background was a strong story in itself, detailing the situation of Ron Stallworth as the first black man in an all-white, often openly racist environment. The choice to make Stallworth’s partner in going undercover a secular Jew - the actual identity of his partner remains unknown - is brilliant as it gives both men a reason to invest personally in the mission, although Zimmerman at first denies it.

The blending of past and present, ranging from images from Birth of a Nation and the harrowing eyewitness account if a lynching (in a powerful performance by Harry Belafonte) to shots of the Charlottesville march is profoundly chilling, reminding us that nothing we see is new, and nothing has been put behind us.

I’m still thinking about the film, days after seeing it. Powerful.


Another film I’ve seen recently is Bohemian Rhapsody. I wanted to see it, despite the discussions of its treatment if Mercury’s Sexuality, because I was a great fan of Queen and nothing can convince me that Freddie Mercury was not the greatest frontman in rock and roll history. I was prepared to be forgiving as long as Rami Malik’s performance lived up to its billing. Which it did. I was blown away by how well he inhabited Mercury’s persona. And while yes, there were some distinct problems with the way that Mercury’s sexuality was portrayed, It was very clear that Malik knew he was playing a queer man, and he played him that way. The text might have been less than accurate about the ways his bisexuality informed his life and his performances, but Malik puts it unmistakably into his chacterisation, and it is a thing of beauty. Whatever the problems were with the film, Malik made Freddie Mercury, the man, the artist, the musician, come alive in all his queer vitality.


So yeah, colour me happy with the movie. I’d have been happier with something more accurate, and less inclined to suggest that aspects of gay life that Freddie engaged in were due solely to his being lonely, lost, and misguided... but I’ll take Malik’s incandescent performance and ignore the things that could have been better.