Infiltrado na Klan, by Spike Lee: analysis, summary, context and meaning
Infiltrator na Klan is a dramatic comedy released in 2018, written and directed by Spike Lee. Based on autobiographical book Black klansman, by Ron Stallworth, or a film tells the story of the black policeman that managed to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan during the 70s.
Attention: this article contains spoilers!
I summarize
The film accompanies the journey of Ron Stallworth, a young man who entered the Colorado police force in the 1970s, during a period of extreme racial discrimination in the United States of America.
Embora seja alvo de preconceito no work, Ron's career advances when he becomes detective and fears that he will infiltrate a black student athletic encounter. Lá, he escuta or speech of an old member two Black panthers About the social injustices that Patrice, leader of the two students movement, is facing.
Ron found a non-wage ad to join the Ku Klux Klan, or white supremacist group that terrorized him or country. Through the phone, he contacts two members and signs up, giving me or not me for distraction.
He began to love with Patrice, from what he hides that he works with the police. He continues to communicate with Klan, through letters and links to a friend of the group leader, David Duke, with whom he talks regularly. You meet us, you see, I appear and Flip, a partner of the police, that is white and Jewish.
Despite the climate of tension in the Klan and all the anti-Semitic comments that Flip feared to hear, "Ron" is an oily group and ends up being proposed to lead the actions in Colorado.
During their missão, Ron and Flip managed to prevent terrorist attacks, preventing them from crossing over and causing an explosion during an anti-racist protest. Despite this, an investigation was interrupted and Ron was forced to destroy the supplies he collected.
Main characters and cast
Ron Stallworth (John David Washington)
Ron is a police officer who faces episodes of racism within the fora do his work. When he begins to sign more linked to lutas pelos direitos civis, he resolves to infiltrate the Ku Kux Klan and help combat or terrorism from within the group. If he acknowledges or abuse of power by two policemen, he tries to use his profusion to commit crimes of racial hatred in Colorado.
Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver)
Flip is the agent who has passed through Ron at the meetings of the Klan. However he manages to infiltrate, he lives several tense episodes onde other members or approached in an aggressive way, because he mistrusts that he is a Jew. Flip is obliged to deny his identity to him during the entire narrative, in order to preserve his security of him.
Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier)
Patrice is a young university who dedicates herself from body to soul to the black student movement and to luta pela herself. For organizing lectures and meetings with political figures from Renome, among the quais stood out two former members Black panthers, he turns after two attacks from the Klan.
David Duke (Topher Grace)
David Duke is an American politician, leader of the Ku Klux Klan. She talks several times with Ron Stallworth on the phone and accredits that they are allies, while trying to propagate his hate speech from him.
No end, she discovers that or homem how she wants to talk and trust me for a position of leadership and black and this infiltrated not a group.
Felix Kendrickson (Jasper Pääkkönen)
Felix is a member of the Klan and appears to be more perilous and uncontrolled than the group. Logo that Flip knows (faze passing by Ron) suspends his Jewish ascendancy and unfolds an increasingly paranoid behavior, tempting to subjugate or infiltrate a lie detector.
He is the client of the explosion not Patrice's car but he ends up being the only one to die when the bomb activated is not his car.
Connie Kendrickson (Ashlie Atkinson)
Connie is a woman of Felix and shares her ignorant views on the world. Throughout the narrative, she eagerly awaits an opportunity to prove her worth to the group and participate in their actions. No end, he is going to plant a bomb not Patrice's car and ends up killing or husband sem wanting.
Film analysis
Based on real data
Author of Black klansman (2014), a work that inspired or film, Ron Stallworth was the first black policeman of Colorado. From spying on Stokely Carmichael's speech, he was promoted to detective and created an opportunity to infiltrate the Klan, through letters and telephone conversations.
For more than nine months, he has been in contact with Klan members, including David Duke. He was nominated for a leadership position in the "organization" and was the agent responsible for protecting Duke during his visit to Colorado.
An investigation prevented several atos of the Klan in the region and revealed links between the group and the army, but ended abruptly, with allegations of lack of funds. Stallworth's incredible adventure was recorded in secrecy for decades, it was narrated for the first time in 2006, during an interview.
Discrimination, segregation and preconception
The initiation of the film's dinners refer to a moment of change in the history of the United States of America: a Civil war, a bloody confrontation that lived between the years of 1861 and 1865.
On one side we are the southern states, united with the Confederação and fighting for the purpose of maintaining the escravidão nas suas terras. Do outro, or North defended abolition and ended up becoming the winner.
Depois da guerra, a abolition was instituted na 13th Emenda à Constituição But society continued to discriminate against the black population in all the institutions of common life. A situation piorou as the laws of racial segregation we states do sul, which were known as "Jim Crow Leis" and vigoraram between 1876 and 1965. As you read, black and white are separated in schools, public places and transport.
In 1954, however, the separation of the schools was declared unconstitutional, or that it generated a new wave of indignation and racial hatred. This weather is captured I do not announce political propaganda by Dr. Kennebrew Beauregard, played by Alec Baldwin, who gives the film's nickname.
Either video represents the type of political speeches that proliferated at that time. With the Confederation's banner as a background, Beauregard affirms that the white Americans will revolt with this supposed "era of miscigenação and integration" that was beginning in schools.
Na ressaca of World War II, fails two Jews and two communists as ameaças à supremacia branca. Sublinha also that the movements of direct civilians that are growing, with Martin Luther King as a major figure, will be an ameaça à "família branca e caólica".
A political mistake may seem exaggerated or quase comic, but it faithfully portrays the paradigms of the epoch, exposed or the way in which Hate was instigated through ignorance and half.
As a reaction to the direct years that Afro-Americans were slowly conquering, and to prevent the process of integration, arose Ku Klux Klan. The terrorist group appears for the first time logo depois da Civil War and ganhou forced again in 1915, with values of anti-immigration and anti-Semitism.
A racist organization was responsible for various terrorist attacks and deaths motivated by hate. Two 50 years ago, as two civic movements made efforts to end segregation, small groups formed throughout the country, to perpetuate the ideology and actions of the Klan.
Just introduce us to all this context that Spike Lee gives to know or protagonist gives his history, Ron Stallworth, who is preparing to run for um emprego nas forças police. Na porta, there is a sign stating that "aceitam minorias", a clue for here that he will find two companions together.
Before hiring him, he asked questions about his conduct and his way of life, expressing some common preconceptions of the time. Then, or let me know that he would be the first black policeman of the region and that he would learn to "give another face" before you offensive comments.
Ron was forced to passively regret the discrimination that he suffered from two of his own professional colleagues. Still, he insists on his career and gets promoted to detective, leading to his own investigation against Klan.
Consciousness, self-determination and black resistance
Ron's life and career changed from one day to another when he agreed to join the chef, informing that he had a miss for the undercover agent. For dinner I was like trilha sonora or hino Oh Happy Day A classical gospel music performed by Edwin Hawkins' chorus.
Stallworth was sent to spy on the speech of Kwame Ture, an activist who will give a lecture for a group of university students. As a goal of mixing in the multitude, he began to talk with Patrice at the event's bearer, discovering that she was the organizer.
Flip and Jimmy, companions of the police, are accompanying you through the teams and the missão de Ron and perceive that group represents an ameaça for the society.
Or ativist lacks the need to stop running away from his blackness and the importance of defining sirens of beauty from their own image, reflecting the white and Eurocentric sirens that vigoravam.
As Ture's words, however, seem to awaken the attention of the agent, who is visibly identifying with what he is listening to.
Affirming to urgência de reclarem or seu black power (black power), remarks that we need to unlearn the ways as or oppressor teach you to hate ourselves.
Use or example or film Tarzan, saying that when it was a costumava child to twist hair, the white protagonist who fought against "os selvagens". As a tempo, he realized that he was not really twisting against himself.
Fala also gives Vietnam war, in the way that poor black youths were being sent to die for the country that mistreated you. He also denounces police violence and the racist acts that I face daily:
They are killing us like young puppies!
No final lecture, Ron seeks or leads or questions about an impending race war. He responds that the conflict is checking and that everyone must be prepared.
After this first contact, Ron will discover two civic movements and black athleticism as guidelines, mainly through the nova namorada. Patrice is a highly involved militant with an anti-racist cause that organizes protests and encounters, tracing figures from Europe to Colorado.
Between them is Kwame Ture, previously known as Stokely Carmichael, author of the political slogan "black power" that called for self-determination and black resistance in the 60s and 70s.
Before disso, in 1955, not Alabama, a seamstress rosa Parks He refused to give up his place or bus to a white home, thus contradicting the epoch. It has now become a symbol of struggle and response to the norms of racial segregation.
In 1963, with a March on Washington, Martin Luther king He became one of the two greatest leaders of the two direct North American civil movement, promoting the values of love for the next and of pacifism.
Accompanying the movements of the Klan, or film also tells of these remarkable episodes for Luta Pela Equality, showing that Ron, Patrice and all African-Americans are herdeiros dessas battles. Either the speech and the attitude of the young ativist, during the whole or the film, demonstrates that awareness and sense of missão.
Police violence and abuse of power
In 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated in Tennessee. Embora or crime had been committed to a fugitive inmate, James Earl Ray, on the grounds that it had been orchestrated by his own government to death.
Two years before, in 1966, he was born or Match two Black Panthers (Black Panther Party) a revolutionary organization that emerged in Oakland. On his first missão he was to patrol the streets and fight police brutality against African-American citizens.
Defenders of a self-defense policy, the members are armed and were considered to be the FBI "a greater protection for internal security in the country." Kwame Ture was part of the game, and by isso Ron Stallworth was sent to spy on him.
Depois do found, the activists followed together in a car that was stopped by the police. Or agent who approaches you, Landers, who offended Ron, did not work several times in racist comedy. Or police began to revistá-los with violence, attacking Patrice and playing not her body.
During the dinner, they ameaça de prisão and a reação deles é de revolta, responding: "We are born in cadeia!". Later, when she meets Ron Nessa Noite, she goes off on the episode. The agent tries to take satisfaction together with two colleagues but they devalue the situation.
Farther up front, do not film, Flip and Jimmy commented that, not past, or the same agent assassinated a disarmed black garoto but no more consequences. I allege that they will not report it because despite being a family. To indifferent and or mode as acobertam or companheiro levam or protagonist to compare the own Klan.
Within an extremely racist society, the authorities themselves end up perpetuating the behaviors that they must combat.. Ron seems to be debated with this questão, raising a double life in love with Patrice and detective infiltrated.
During a home conversation, she states that it is not possible to change a system from within, but Ron seems to disagree. Quase not the end of the film, he achieves a bit of a win when he has a good weapon for Landers. Using a shield, he succeeds in proving the hateful speech to the most conduct of the agent, or resulting in his expulsion from him.
Pouco depois, however, Ron ends up being a victim of discrimination and police brutality. When he is running after Connie to prevent her from planting the bomb, he is stopped by agents who assume he is a bandit. The protagonist tries to explain that he is a detetive infiltrated more agressões only for me when Flip sees to confirm the story.
A long time of investigation, he discovered or involved elements of the North American army with the Klan. In spite of everything or that they will achieve a long nine months, Ron and Flip's missão was abruptly canceled, perhaps because they were revealing those ties.
Ron and Flip: you infiltrated
When he responds to a daily announcement and signs up to receive more information about the Ku Klux Klan, Ron gives me his real name for distraction. Starting today, he began to be sought by two members, Walter, who wanted to mark a meeting.
Specifically, a white agent frequents Klan meetings in order to spy, pretending to be him. Or sent to Flip, who we discover to be a Jew when someone mentions or sneak in with Davi's star that he uses not fish.
From his first conversation, Felix questions his ascendancy, bombarding Flip with antisemitic comments and tempting him to take a test with a polygraph. Or a person is forced to repeatedly deny his identity, making the same speech in favor of the Holocaust to pretend to be a true member of KKK.
He noted that, throughout the narrative, Ron became increasingly invested in joining the movement two direct civilians and fighting the speeches and racist actions that he witnessed. When I discuss the case of Landers and the brutality of the police, or the protagonist asks how Flip can act with indifference. He responds:
For you isso a crusade, for me a work!
Embora tenham different positions, the two companions demonstrate extreme courage and freedom of spirit when they participate in the Klan batismo ceremony. Flip goes as an undercover member and Ron as a police officer responsible for Duke's protection; Even when they are uncovered they manage to escape and prevent the group's terrorist attacks.
Stereotypes and Racist Tropes in North American Society
There are several racial stereotypes that we can find throughout the film. Through speeches such as Duke, Beauregard or Felix, Spike Lee explains the preconceptions of the era, many two quais are maintained through two tempos.
Don't call Duke, Ron knows exactly what to say to impress him: just reproduce his hate speech and pretend that he agrees with all his illogical and ignorant arguments.
It is also interesting to note that I do not use the language during these dinners and that I do not mean it afterwards. Or stereotype that black people falavam in a different way, "incorrect", as sotaques and ou unusually expressões was very strong, and persists for several years. Ron ironizes Isso, imitating or sotaque in Duke's way of speaking.
Homem black as a predator
Represented as ignorant and violent, or black man, he was faced as a predator, brute force, an ameaça for a security mainly das women brancas. It arises or stereotype of "Mandingo" or "Black Buck", comparing esses homens to animais.
This image, associated with a strong sexualization and the idea that it was aggressive or unforeseeable, generated a wave of lynchings and deaths caused by multiple "bem cities".
This trope, highly damaging to the North American populace, is quite visible not a propaganda video starring Beauregard. Os cidadãos brancos eram, through these kinds of speeches, taught to fear blacks and treat them with violence and some empathy.
Mulher negra as caretaker
Conversing with Ron or on the phone, Duke alleges that he did not hate all blacks, just those who refused to be submissive. Fala then gives an undertaking that I created during all my childhood, her "Mammy".
O trope is well known from the public, emerging in various Hollywood classics such as ... E or Vento Levou (1939). It deals with a domestic business or a housekeeper who lives to take care of the family and two others.
These women were always represented as people who were semi-vacuous or ambitious, whose sole purpose was to comply with orders and take two others.
This type of narrative was so common at the time that, during her career, actress Hattie McDaniel interpreted more than forty paps as "Mammy", being the first Afro-descendant to win an Oscar.
This stereotype of an obedient woman is totally challenged by the figure of Patrice. Struggling to meet her living condition, she leads the student movement and faces her enemies head on. By isso, she becomes the main alvo of the Klan, which she considers an iminent perigo.
Black personagem as adjuvant
During a conversation with Patrice's friends, I mentioned that a majority of the stories or black personagem was never the main one. On the contrary, she is there to help the white protagonist, many times I do not have any density or objective sozinho.
The film itself responds, placing a black hero in the center of the narrative and tracing the audience to the feitos Quase inacreditáveis of Ron Stallworth against uma das maiores organizations terrorists two States United. Here, at Ron's idea, he is supposed to assume the answers of all ação, despite being a detective novice.
Culture and representation
Uma das dinners more beautiful of Infiltrator na Klan It is the moment that Ron and Patrice dance together. Ação decorre logo depois de conversrem about or assisted by your companions sofreram with more than Landers.
A rebellion that marks or dialogue about police brutality contrasts directly with the joy that the next dinner transmits. I'm numa festa, dancing Too Late to Turn Back Now by Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose.
An atmosphere of love and partilha extends além do casal, infects everyone in volta. Despite all the discriminations, there was a field where Afro-American culture was conquering more and more recognition: music.
Also about the questão da representation, and interesting to observe you comments about cinema that go through me or film. Um two precursors of racial-themed cinema in Hollywood, Spike Lee is failing as audiences and critics, sowing all or racism that has been tolerated and applauded in the seventh art.
When talking about films, Patrice and Ron mentioned Super fly (1972) as a harmful example of association between Afro-Americans and criminals. Comment also or subgenre Blaxploitation, feitos films, starring and directed to the North American black population during the 70's.
By the end, face reference to infamous O Birth of a Nação (1915), or a silent film designated as responsible for the rebirth of KKK. Incredibly toxic to a society, representative or group of racists such as black heroes such as "selvagens"; Likewise, I was seen by all North Americans, seeking to be protected at Casa Branca.
A false symmetry
It is precisely O Birth of a Nação or film to be screened during the Klan reunion. Spike Lee interspersed the dinners where he met with a conversation between two activists who were forced to leave or protested because of the bomb attack.
Among them is Jerome Turner (played by Harry Belafonte), a homely man who is a testemunhou or lynch mob of Jesse Washington, a teenager who was falsely framed for rape.
A story, narrated with great emotion, é um true case that happened in 1917, in Waco, Texas. After being accused of raping a white woman, Jesse was scattered, tortured and burned alive in front of 15,000 people, including police force.
Or his brutal assassination of him was faced as a show for a multidão. The same thing to be photographed depois de morto and the image was sold as a remembrance of the "event". Or shock, a dor e o medo são visíveis us two young men who o escutam.
At the same time, na Klan, Duke discusses his supposed superiority of two genes from him. Assistem O Birth of a Nação, Riem, applaud, beijam, commemorate and face Nazi saudation enquanto shout "White Power".
With this overlap, Lee seems to underline and make explicit that there is a false symmetry, not the way that North American society faces racial discrimination. "Supremacia Branca" and "Black Power" are not on two sides of the same moeda, there are only equivalent groups that tram uma luta.
Enquanto or movement student and civil black Lutava peels equality of treatment and opportunities, the speeches of ódio Batalhavam to maintain or be able to suas mine. The first ones we will demand fundamental human rights, the second ones insist that the system remain the same and preserve all their privileges.
Also, it does not make sense to compare the movements or their motivations. The white conservatives did not likewise because they felt superior and wanted to kill, plan ambushes, assassinations and all types of violence.
Enquanto isso, the activists direct hairs civis try to organize and educate the population, fazer a public luta of consciencialização. With a closed knit, we demanded:
All or power to all the people!
Another dinner worth mentioning is the one where Felix and Connie are in bed, hugged. To the happiness of the hometown, I directly contrast with what I am talking about: they are planning an attack and I say they will kill hundreds of people and carry out a dream.
Or moment is a shouting example of the way that racist speech leads to total dehumanization and devaluation of the life of another.
Final dinners: 1970 or 2017?
O final do film é, sem dúvida, apart from the most disturbing of Infiltrator na Klan. From accompanying us to Ron and Flip's adventure, from attending the ignorance and hate of the KKK and various lutas of black athleticism, we verify that everything continues the same.
Ron and Patrice are at home when listening to a barulho la fora. Pela Janela, get me to see several homens dressed as Klan uniforms, burning a cross. A message is here: nothing changed, the United States continues to be an extremely racist country.
Lee becomes evident when he faces a link between a terrorist attack and as real images of August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Na manifestação, organized by white supremacists and neo-Nazi groups, formed unaccounted for the visible weapons, the flags of the Confederação and the Swiss cross of the Hitler regime.
Either this was received as a counter-demonstration promoted by anti-fascist citizens and the confrontation was unavoidable. Tragédia chegou when James Fields, a young man of just 20 years, jogou or his car to top two counter-protesters, killing several people and killing Heather Heyer.
During these events, Donald Trump, president of the Republic, condemned by his discriminatory opinions, did not position himself against fascism and violence. At the same time, he appealed to unity and declared that he hated and fanaticism had matured "on many sides".
Again, it is a patent or false parallel, as fascists and anti-fascists are equally perverse. Infiltrator na Klan It was launched, in the United States, on August 10, 2018, exactly one year after the Charlottesville attack.
Spike Lee shows that many decades pass more or the country still lives with a recession of racial segregation. As guidelines, two civic movements continue the same and the same basic directives continue to be questioned, due to preconceived years of always. At the demonstration we can still see Duke, or former leader of the KKK, declaring that this is the first step for two supremacists to win.
Meaning of the film: a dramatic comedy?
A most singular characteristic of Infiltrator na Klan, here that seems to conquer the public, or the way in which the film is taken is altering at different moments of the narrative.
The idea of a comedy about a black homem infiltrated into the Ku Klux Klan brought viewers to watch or film, but perhaps everyone expects the disturbing content that Lee offers us. Through um subversive, caustic humor, expõe e puts em xeque or oppressor speech.
In various passages, as Ron and Duke's conversations over or telephoned, we managed to laugh at the ignorance and absurdity of some of the two arguments used. Like unrolling two events, not so much, a sensation that begins to invade us and for lack of hope, or shock, and suddenly and impossible to laugh more.
An example is a regrettable dinner where Ron finds you alvos where Klan thirty-something shot and barnacle that pretend to imitate black men. Em silêncio, or homem examines the objects and we can see his face flooded with dor.
Numa interview à Vanity fair, Spike Lee states that he never used the word "comedy" to disbelieve or film. Through satire, Infiltrator na Klan He tackles pressing issues and complex Morais problems. At the same publication, he affirms that it is um two first films that can be used as a reaction to the Trump era.
Also, lending social agitation and violence from the 70s, or director gives voice to local issues of his country, calling attention to the fundamental issues still in the cause.
A highly political film, it comments not only or rumored that the country is taking as a new presidency but also the impact that it is having on society, reviving the preconceptions and racial hatred.
Indicated to Oscar for my movie, Infiltrator na Klan é more than a story in images: é um Spike Lee's manifesto on the anti-racist emergency.
Data sheet
| Original title | Blackkklansman |
| Launching | August 10, 2018 (USA), November 22, 2018 (Brazil) |
| Address | Spike lee |
| Roteiro | Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee |
| Duration | 128 minutes |
| Sound trilha | Terence blanchard |
| Awards | Grand Prix (2018), Prix du Public UBS (2018), BAFTA de Cinema: Melhor Roteiro Adapted (2019), Satellite Award for Melhor Filme Independente (2019), Óscar de Melhor Roteiro Adapted (2019) |
Conheça also
- Films about racism and Black Conscience
- Pulp Fiction Film: Tempo de Violência
- Film Cidade de Deus
- Quentin Tarantino films
- Film V of Vingança
