The Black Klansman

The Black Klansman The easiest way to gain acceptance into the Ku Klux Klan is to show up wearing a MAGA hat. Unfortunately, this drama takes place decades before those symbols of hate were manufactured. In retaliation for a black man sitting at a lunch counter in Alabama, the KKK bombs a black church. Among those killed in the terrorist act is the daughter of Jerry (Richard Gilden), an LA jazz musician, who subsequently gets revenge against the hate group by becoming a member, and tearing it apart from the inside. One of the few movies to confront racism in America at the time, this low-budget feature from 1966 was directed by schlock horror movie-maker Ted V. Mikels, who avoids blaxploitation clichés to deliver a powerful, albeit problematic production - namely the white actor portraying Jerry. Incidentally, the first sign that Jerry is a white guy comes when he tries to play jazz. Yellow Light

For its time, this was an unusual film. It's not got a lot of things going for it. The writing is sometimes painful. The acting is usually static. The sets are sometimes just pasted together. The fades/dissolves are dated. The music is more dramatic than the scenes deserve. But ... but ... but ... This was an interesting and perhaps brave film to make, where it portrays black Americans not as sympathetic powerless people but in actuality just normal people trying to navigate a dangerous society. *** SPOILER *** After a mixed-race man's black daughter is killed in a church by Klansman, he decides to go undercover with the local KKK Klaven. The mighty are overturned and secrets are discovered. Hokey, yes, but really, it was a very honest effort to make a film about something few others have made a film about.

Oh, this film has flaws all right: Sloppy edits, phony day-for-night, zero budget, and a lot of bad acting. The ending is a bit syrupy as well. But it takes up fascinating questions and plunges headlong into the dark side of American racism, showing KKK meetings, burning crosses, and violence. It treatment of the race question reminds me of the Roger Korman film "The Outsider," in which William Shatner plays a white racist, but in this case a light-skinned black man goes under cover to join the ranks of prejudice. This film's combination of thematic boldness and slipshod execution makes it wonderfully horrible. Or horribly wonderful, I can't figure out which.

If ever there was a time and place to utilize the word 'hoot' in reference to a film, the 'Black Klansman' is transcendental material. How is this piece of art not on DVD as of the year 2004? With mighty waving banner of fierce and vengeful fire, the front man of this film undercuts the enslaving white man by going undercover and tearing down the metaphorical burning cross. In a way, this film is to American HISTORY X as SUBURBIA is to SLC PUNK. This is 1966 exploitation baby, and if you've ever heard the 'N' word, you've still never heard it like this! Shocking today even though no one has seen it. Beg, borrow, steal and investigate getting hold of this film directed by the people who brought you film about zombies and machines that grind up women in bikinis. 4 stars.