The newest Spike Lee movie makes its politically charged way to UK cinemas on August 20.
Fans of Lee’s work in the UK may not be as familiar with the history, surrounding the BlacKkKlansman movie.
Is BlacKkKlansman based on a true story?
Believe it or not, yes it is.
An African-American police officer did, in fact, infiltrate the notorious white supremacist terrorist organisation, the KKK.
The movie is based on the memoir Black Klansman authored by Ron Stallworth.
Stallworth’s 2014 memoir charts the story of his undercover police operation infiltrating the KKK, which lasted nine months before being shut down.
The story was so unique at the time and is so politically relevant today, it comes as no surprise Spike Lee adapted it for the big screen.
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Stallworth himself was very pleased with the movie and told Page Six the timing of the movie “has been perfect.”
“Racism is alive and well,” he continued.
“When it rears its ugly head, we have to be willing to do what we have to do in order to stamp it down and keep it down.
“Don’t be afraid to talk about it, and don’t be afraid to address it and the people who are creating the problem.”
How true is the BlackKklansman movie?
The cinematic adaptation of Stallworth’s memoir stays surprisingly true to its source material in many ways.
Ron Stallworth joined the Colorado Springs Police department as a cadet on November 13, 1972, and was sworn in as an officer on June 18, 1974, his 21st birthday.
Like in the memoir, the movie shows him infiltrating the KKK, though the mechanism was slightly different.
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The movie shows him seeing an ad in the paper and then placing a phone call – when in the memoir, Stallworth wrote to a PO box listed in the ad and received a phone call from the Colorado chapter of the KKK.
Furthermore, the love interest in the movie of Patrice, a fierce and politically driven woman, was a fabrication of Lee’s.
Spike Lee has said Patrice was inspired by the women of the Black Power Movement.
The other fiction Lee made up was the ethnicity and religion of Stallworth’s white partner.
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BlackKklansman stars Adam Driver as Flip Zimmerman, Stallworth’s partner who takes on the alias of white Ron Stallworth for the mission into the KKK.
For the movie, perhaps to give the character more dimension or to add another layer of politically relevant material, Zimmerman is Jewish.
Stallworth changed the name of his partner in his memoir to Chuck and not much is known about the real man who helped conduct the intelligence-gathering mission.
Other bits and bobs throughout are heightened for the dramatic retelling of the real-life story, but Lee remains true to his source material and the resulting movie is one which you’ll want to see again and again.
BlacKkKlansman is in UK cinemas on Friday, August 24, 2019.