Say hello to the two Rons

Spike Lee’s triumphant return to form tells tale of cops taking on the KKK

AFTER a spell on the sidelines, Spike Lee could not have chosen a better time for a return to form with BlackKklansman.

Based on the true story of an African-American detective who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, Lee’s comedy-drama manages to be as funny as it is angry, and this is one furious picture indeed.

The extent of Lee’s ambition is evident from the off as he opens with a clip from Gone with the Wind, Hollywood’s epic take on the Civil War. Scarlett has arrived at the train station to look for Dr Meade among the wounded. As the camera pans upwards, we see that there are thousands of casualties, enough to fill a battlefield. By the time the camera halts its rise, Scarlett is but a mere detail in a wider calamity.

Ron Stallworth’s story, being a small part of the sorry tale of America’s centuries-long maltreatment of its black citizens, might have gone the same way if not for the detective’s book, and now Lee’s film. What a tale it is.

Stallworth (John David Washington, son of Denzel) joins the Colorado Springs police in the early 1970s, the first black officer on the force. Sent to the records department, he looks set to spend his career in uniformed obscurity, only to land a break when Stokely Carmichael comes to town. The police want to know what the Black Panther leader says, so along goes Stallworth and earns a promotion.

His next move is part genius, part insanity. Seeing an ad in the paper for the local Ku Klux Klan, he calls the number, poses as a racist and is invited along to a meeting. There is one obvious problem. With Stallworth unable to attend in person, a white colleague, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), goes along in his place.

So now we have a “phone Ron” and an “in person Ron”. Soon, in person Ron is in deep with the local Klan, learning about the violent acts the group is planning. Meanwhile, phone Ron is upping his game, talking to the old Grand Wizard himself, David Duke (played with creepy glee by Topher