All About History - Issue 111, 2021_

HISTORY^ H

OLLYWOOD

VS

01

William O’Neal (Stanfield)

pretends to be an FBI agent

to steal a car. The FBI offers him an

informer role to escape prosecution.

This differs from O’Neal’s account,

but is similar to one in the Chicago

Tribune where the fake ID was used

with the police to escape.

02

Fred Hampton (Kaluuya),

a star of the civil rights

movement and chairman of the

Illinois Black Panther Party, is the

target the FBI wants O’Neal to get

close to. While details have been

simplified, he did create a Rainbow

Coalition with other activist groups.

03

The shootout at the Panther

HQ is an amalgam of two

incidents. The detail of someone

being spotted on the roof (in the

film, this is O’Neal) is from a later

event. A shootout on 1 August 1969

matches the film more closely but

took place at night, not in the day.

04

O’Neal wears a wire and

offers Hampton C-4 to use

in a terrorist attack. This appears

to be fictional, but O’Neal did offer

explosives to another Panther and

encouraged him to use them for

a  burglary. It’s unclear if a wire was

involved in this incident.

05

Hampton is killed by police

in a raid on his f lat. O’Neal

spikes his drink so he is asleep. The

true details of the raid are unclear,

but O’Neal did draw a plan of the f lat

for the FBI, who passed it on to the

police, and an autopsy confirmed

barbiturates in Hampton’s system.

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Director: Shaka King Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons Country: USA Released: 2021

A story of betrayal and racism in the highest offices of America

JUDAS AND THE

BLACK MESSIAH

VERDICT: Largely sticks to the already

highly dramatic real events