Who’s Who in Judas and the Black Messiah: A Character Guide Vulture.com 2/13/2021 Nick Allen
Judas and the Black Messiah has the all the trappings of a genre movie it’s a gritty crime thriller that unfolds on the tense stage of an anti-police revolution but it shouldn’t be underestimated as a history lesson. In its true story of how informant William O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield) infiltrated the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s, director Shaka King’s film highlights historical details and lives that have rarely been given mainstream focus. Along with reckoning with the horrific assassination of party chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) by Chicago Police, the FBI, and the State’s Attorney’s Office, the film also celebrates Hampton’s power as an orator and man of the people, as well as the impact of his organization on the city of Chicago: the breakfast programs, the free healthcare, the Rainbow Coalition, and more