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00:00Ron Starworth, are you for the revolution and the liberation of Black people?
00:08Spike Lee is one of the most iconic filmmakers of our time,
00:12so it might surprise you to learn that, after an influential 30-year film career,
00:17he has only just scored his first Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director
00:22this year for Black Klansman. Which leads us to wonder,
00:27why is this the film that finally got through to the Academy?
00:30I'm just happy to be talking to a true white American.
00:34Amen.
00:35On the one hand, there's a simple explanation.
00:38The Oscars' penchant for delayed recognition, or makeup awards,
00:42like when they gave Martin Scorsese Best Director for The Departed
00:45to really acknowledge his earlier masterful films,
00:48or how Leonardo DiCaprio's Best Actor win for The Revenant
00:51was generally understood to be a kind of lifetime achievement award.
00:55So we might say Lee's nominations are righting the wrong
00:58of overlooking 1989's Do The Right Thing and his other films since.
01:03Still, Black Klansman is a significant work in its own right,
01:06from a mature director who's achieved mastery over his medium and message,
01:10and is still at the top of his game.
01:13Even though the story took place in Seven,
01:15I still thought it was a great opportunity to comment on the world we live today
01:20with Agent Orange in the White House.
01:22So we're going to walk you through the most salient things about this movie,
01:26and how it shows the director doing what he does best,
01:29proving that film has power,
01:31and speaking about today, in signature Spike Lee style.
01:35If you're new here, be sure to subscribe and hit the bell
01:43to get notified about all of our new videos.
01:51In many ways, Black Klansman is the quintessential Spike Lee joint,
01:56featuring all the director's most recognizable trademarks.
01:59In our Spike Lee video, we talked about Lee's distinctive techniques,
02:02so now let's look at how Black Klansman harnesses these to full effect.
02:12We hear,
02:13Why don't you wake up?
02:14almost all of Lee's films issue this command.
02:18Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
02:21Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
02:29Here, it comes right after Ron and his colleague discussed the possibility of David
02:33Duke running for office in a clear nod to President Trump.
02:37America would never elect somebody like David Duke,
02:40President of the United States of America.
02:42Many in the past thought the Trump presidency inconceivable.
02:46There's not going to be a President Donald Trump.
02:49Um, that's not going to happen.
02:52Just as we in the present may be watching this movie about the 70s,
02:55comfortably feeling that the worst of racism in America is behind us.
03:00So in this moment, Black Klansman issues a wake-up call,
03:04urging us not to be so naive.
03:07Coming from a black man, that's pretty naive.
03:10There's a double dolly shot, Lee's signature tracking shot,
03:14where both the actor and the camera are pulled on dollies,
03:17so it looks like the characters are floating or being propelled forward.
03:20This is what makes Ron and Patrice appear to glide down the hallway at the end,
03:24where they see the burning cross outside, followed by
03:28real footage of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville,
03:31and the attack that killed Heather Heyer.
03:34Lee often incorporates real photos or video footage
03:37to remind us how his movie connects to the real world.
03:40Ending with the Charlottesville footage is a way of showing that,
03:43not only are white supremacists still active in our world today,
03:46they're not even hiding anymore.
03:49And with this guy in the White House, he's made it okay for these supremacists,
03:55white supremacists, to come out in the open.
03:56They're coming out from the rocks, and he's legitimizing them.
04:00And I wouldn't even call it dog whistles, he's like on a bullhorn.
04:05There's a nuanced look at race through an idiosyncratic lens.
04:09God bless white America.
04:11Lee plays up the exaggerated, absurdist feel of these events,
04:14letting us laugh off this exaggerated portrayal of these characters who are set in the past,
04:19only to pull the rug out from under us as he reveals that they're all too real and current.
04:24David Duke may seem silly and cartoonish,
04:27I consider you a true white American hero.
04:31Is there any other kind?
04:33But at the end of the film, we're reminded that this is an actual person who is still active and
04:38dangerous today.
04:39This is the first step toward taking America back.
04:44It puts forth a dialogue between the radical who wants to tear down the system,
04:50versus the moderate who seeks change inside the system.
04:53We fight for what black people really need, black liberation.
04:56Right, right, so can't you do that from the inside?
04:58No, you can't.
04:59The white man won't give up his position in power without a struggle.
05:02In many ways, Black Klansman is a companion piece to Lee's most iconic movie,
05:07Do the Right Thing.
05:08That earlier work offered a devastating critique of police brutality in a black neighborhood.
05:13No!
05:21But here, Ron is proud to be part of the police force.
05:24I always wanted to be a cop, and I'm still for the liberation of my people.
05:29It's not that the circumstances have changed all that much since Do the Right Thing.
05:34Police brutality in America is still dire today.
05:37What we are seeing here is Lee's personal evolution.
05:41In Do the Right Thing, Lee aligned himself with the radical side of the debate.
05:49In this day and age, in the year of our lord 1989,
05:53I'm leaning more towards philosophies of Malcolm X.
05:56In the nearly 30 years since, the director may have become more open
06:01to working within the system for more moderate, stable progress.
06:04Don't think just because I don't wear a black beret or a black leather jacket,
06:08black Ray-Ban screaming, kill Whitey, that I don't care about my people.
06:12Sorry to bother you director, Boots Riley criticized Black Klansman's representation of the police,
06:18saying, quote, for Spike to come out with a movie where story points are fabricated in order to make
06:23a black cop and his counterparts look like allies in the fight against racism is really disappointing.
06:29But Lee isn't arguing that all cops are on the right side of justice.
06:33Now we are being shot down like dogs in the streets by white, racist cops.
06:40And most crucially, wherever Lee stands personally in this conversation,
06:45he continues to give a voice to both sides of this debate in his movie, just as he always has.
06:51So you think all cops are racist?
06:53It only takes one to pull the trigger on an innocent sister or brother.
06:57It references film history. Black Klansman opens with a scene from Gone with the Wind,
07:06the Civil War epic that, if you adjust for inflation,
07:09is still the highest grossing movie ever made.
07:12We also see footage from The Birth of a Nation, D.W. Griffith's 1915 silent film,
07:18Lee uses these movies to remind us of cinema's racist legacy,
07:30how the medium has been used to dehumanize black people
07:32and promote a sympathetic view of the Confederacy.
07:35Lee also references the blaxploitation genre,
07:38in stylistic nods like the repetition of the musical theme,
07:41and explicitly in the script.
07:51Shafter Superfly.
07:52What?
07:53Pick one.
07:54A private detective would repent any day and twice on Sunday.
07:59Blaxploitation movies were inherently contradictory.
08:02They were empowering on some level because they made cool,
08:06self-determining black characters the heroes,
08:08where are my manners?
08:11I didn't even introduce myself to you gentlemen.
08:15My name is John Shaft.
08:18Freeze.
08:19But, at the same time, as the genre's name implies,
08:23these films played up certain damaging stereotypes.
08:27That image does damage to our people.
08:29Jeez, it's a movie.
08:31Give her rest.
08:31I can't let her rest.
08:32So through all these movie references,
08:35the director is reminding us that,
08:37while we might think of cinematic history
08:39as an academic topic removed from our everyday,
08:42movies have real power in our society.
08:46After all,
08:46The Birth of a Nation is what revived the Ku Klux Klan
08:49in the first place.
08:50It was so powerful that it gave the Ku Klux Klan a rebirth.
08:56But by responding via his own film,
08:59Lee takes control,
09:01shaping our perceptions through cinema himself.
09:03There is one film missing from this list
09:12that deserves to be on it,
09:14because ironically,
09:17it might tell the biggest truth of all,
09:20and that's Do the Right Thing.
09:22The year that Do the Right Thing was excluded
09:24from most categories at the Oscars,
09:26Best Picture went to Driving Miss Daisy.
09:29Now, Black Klansman is up against Green Book,
09:32which some have called this year's Driving Miss Daisy.
09:35Both driving movies are well-made and touching,
09:38but they offer up a more or less sanitized version of race relations
09:43from the perspective of a white person,
09:45with a neat, racism-is-solved ending.
09:48I'm doing the best I can.
09:53Me too.
09:56Well, I reckon that's about all it is to us then, ain't it?
10:00Meanwhile, looking back,
10:02we can't help but find Do the Right Thing
10:04even more truthful impression than was clear at the time.
10:08We had the crystal ball.
10:09I mean, I think we predicted what happened with the L.A. riots.
10:12So we see history repeating itself.
10:15In the news, at the box office, and at the Academy Awards.
10:20Lee's film gets this, and intentionally draws parallels
10:24between the past and our present.
10:25We hear plays on the language of right now.
10:28America first.
10:30America first.
10:31We had to find things in the script that automatically would ring bells
10:37and people would say, like, that shit is happening right now.
10:39Right.
10:40Near the end, we see the racist cop get his comeuppance.
10:43I could even bust a cap and your black ass
10:46if I feel like nothing will be done about it.
10:49Jimmy, did you get it?
10:50Oh, yes, I got it.
10:51Flip, did you get it?
10:53Oh, yeah, I got it.
10:54Chief, did you get it?
10:55Oh, I really, really get it.
10:57You're under arrest.
10:59While Ron is celebrated.
11:00There he is, the man of the minute.
11:04Don't you mean our Flip?
11:05It's one of those neat endings where racism appears solved,
11:09like we might recognize from a lot of movies on this subject.
11:13But this is Lee faking us out, before he goes on to underline
11:17that this couldn't be further from the truth.
11:19It may be demoralizing to recognize how little lasting progress we can point to.
11:25But the best thing we can do is to heed Spike Lee's eternal command,
11:30and wake up.
11:31The first step is becoming conscious and remaining aware.
11:35If we want to solve this problem, we have to face it head on.
11:39We must unite and we must organize to form a base to fight racism!
11:48Black Klansmen cleverly links the idea of passing
11:52That's what some light-skinned black folks do.
11:54They pass for white.
11:55with going undercover.
11:56Are you undercover or something?
11:58This comes through in the way that Flip conceals his Jewish identity.
12:02You're Jewish, brother.
12:03The so-called chosen people.
12:06You've been passing for a wasp.
12:07And how Ron doesn't tell Patrice he's a cop.
12:10Are you a pig?
12:12Excuse me?
12:13At one point Flip talks about how pretending to not be Jewish
12:16has made him think more about this part of his identity.
12:19I never thought much about being Jewish.
12:22Nobody around me was Jewish.
12:24Is that passing?
12:26Well, then I have been passing.
12:29So often we don't reckon with our otherness.
12:32If we have the chance to fit in with mainstream whiteness,
12:35this tends to feel easier than to claim our heritage or true identities.
12:40I was just another white kid.
12:42Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner once said that his show is about,
12:45quote, becoming white.
12:47That's the definition of success in America,
12:49becoming a wasp, a wasp male.
12:52Even though Don Draper was already, of course, white,
12:55Weiner is using the concept here to mean something broader,
12:58that aspiration to become the totally accepted insider.
13:01But as Black Klansman shows, sooner or later we run into barriers
13:05that force us to acknowledge the other within ourselves.
13:08They're going to know the difference between how a white man talks and a Negro.
13:14How exactly does a black man talk?
13:17So the message is that we have to embrace the nuance and complexity of our identities,
13:22instead of disavowing any part of them.
13:24It is time for you to stop running away from being black.
13:29In this story, Ron's perspective as a black man makes him a better detective.
13:33Because of his experience as an other,
13:36he can see things and transcend boundaries the white police officers can't.
13:40Chief, some of us can speak King's English,
13:42others speak Jive.
13:44Ron Stallworth here happens to be fluent in both.
13:47You might notice that this detective story doesn't really have a mystery to solve.
13:51The white supremacists are the ones who are trying to uncover a plot in their midst.
13:55Now put that f***ing strap on your arm.
13:59Put it on your arm!
14:01But on a deeper level, the central mystery of this movie is the question of racism itself.
14:06Why the ideology persists and appeals so overwhelmingly to some.
14:11All you get now is how we gotta cater to them.
14:14Now wash your mouth.
14:16Don't say this, don't say that.
14:18And how people use it to justify wrongs,
14:21to willfully blind themselves to the humanity of others.
14:24So by passing or hiding that other part of yourself,
14:28you play right into the agenda of bigotry,
14:30helping further the assumption that to succeed in society,
14:34you must essentially become white.
14:36Well, God bless white America.
14:37God bless white America, sir.
14:39Near the end, Ron and Patrice are arguing about their views on the police.
14:43Have you handed in your resignation from the Colorado Springs Police Department?
14:49Negative.
14:50But after they hear the knock on the door,
14:52they're suddenly united.
14:54Because they face a much greater threat that doesn't distinguish
14:57between their differences of opinion,
14:58the KKK doesn't care whether you're an activist or detective.
15:03To them, you are your race.
15:05And Lee's final message is that,
15:07wherever you fall in the radical versus moderate debate,
15:10we're still ultimately on the same side,
15:13and we need to be united against racism.
15:16That s*** detective.
15:18Did you ever, come on.
15:20Did you ever get his name?
15:21No.
15:22I don't think I...
15:23Are you sure you don't know who he is?
15:25Hi guys, it's Susannah.
15:34And Deborah.
15:34And we are The Take.
15:36If you like what we're doing and you're new here,
15:38please subscribe.
15:39And if you have the means and you want to,
15:41please consider supporting us on Patreon.
15:43And there's also a new feature here on YouTube,
15:46where you can hit that join button and become a member right here.
15:49Thank you so much for watching.
15:55I'll see you next time.
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