Press play when you start the movie. These notes follow along, minute by minute. Questions to think about are at the end.
LaKeith Stanfield is restaging William O'Neal's 1989 interview for the documentary series Eyes on the Prize II. Footage of the real O'Neal comes near the end of the film.
Source · History News Network reviewShaka King said that framing let him sneak a Fred Hampton story to people who didn't know who Hampton was.
Source · IMDb triviaAfter his arrest, the FBI offered to drop charges if he spied on the Illinois Black Panther Party.
Source · Smithsonian Magazine: The True History Behind Judas and the Black MessiahThe crew recreated 1960s Chicago on Cleveland's streets.
Source · Greater Cleveland Film CommissionDaniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield and Lil Rel Howery all appeared in Jordan Peele's 2017 film.
Source · IMDb triviaHampton was 20 and 21 during the events of the film. Kaluuya won the Oscar for best supporting actor.
Source · IMDb triviaShe and her son, Fred Hampton Jr., worked with the filmmakers as consultants.
Source · WTTW: Fred Hampton Jr., Akua Njeri on Judas and the Black MessiahThe Panthers fed thousands of children before school. The FBI saw it as a threat because it built support in the community.
Source · Smithsonian Magazine: The True History Behind Judas and the Black MessiahHe and Kaluuya were both nominated for best supporting actor, for the same movie.
Source · Hollywood Reporter: Daniel Kaluuya wins OscarHe brought together the Panthers, the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican group, and the Young Patriots, a group of poor white Southerners in Chicago.
Source · PolitiFact: Fact-checking Judas and the Black MessiahHe was convicted of helping take ice cream from a truck to hand out to kids. Supporters said the charge was meant to take him off the streets.
Source · Mental Floss: 10 Facts About Fred HamptonHoover ran the FBI's COINTELPRO program, which spied on and worked to destroy Black political groups.
Source · Smithsonian Magazine: The True History Behind Judas and the Black MessiahThe Trial of the Chicago 7 also came out in 2020-21, with Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Hampton. Both films were nominated for best picture.
Source · IMDb triviaShe is also a poet and playwright.
Source · IMDb triviaHe said so in an interview after playing O'Neal.
Source · IMDb triviaO'Neal admitted he drew a floor plan of Hampton's apartment, and his FBI handler passed it to Chicago police.
Source · PolitiFact: Fact-checking Judas and the Black MessiahAcademy voters decide for themselves which category a performance belongs in, so he ended up next to Kaluuya.
Source · IMDb triviaIn real life, LaKeith Stanfield did get an Oscar nomination for playing O'Neal.
Source · IMDb triviaA sedative was found in Hampton's blood, but no record shows who gave it to him.
Source · PolitiFact: Fact-checking Judas and the Black MessiahInvestigators later found the Panthers fired at most one. Hampton and Mark Clark were killed. Fred Hampton Jr. was born 25 days later.
Source · PolitiFact: Fact-checking Judas and the Black MessiahDaniel Kaluuya said the cast and crew stopped to share a few words before filming, and that the day felt very heavy.
Source · IMDb triviaIn 1982, the city, county and federal government agreed to pay $1.85 million to settle the lawsuit brought by survivors and families. H.E.R. won an Oscar for the film's song "Fight for You."
Source · PolitiFact: Fact-checking Judas and the Black MessiahHe became the first Black British actor to get more than one Oscar nomination, and the first to win an acting Oscar.
Source · IMDb triviaThe producers were Shaka King, Charles D. King and Ryan Coogler.
Source · IMDb triviaQuestions to think about on your own, or to talk through with whoever you watched with.
The film spends more time with O'Neal than with Hampton. Why do you think the filmmakers made that choice? What did it change for you?
The FBI saw a free breakfast program as a threat. What does that tell you about what the government feared?
Hampton brought very different groups together around shared needs. Who would be in your Rainbow Coalition today?
Times are matched to the film's subtitles, so they may be off by a minute on some versions. Each note links to its source. Still images will come from the studio's press materials.