By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies, and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.
By creating an account, you agree to the
Privacy Policy
and the
Terms and Policies,
and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the
Fandango Media Brands.
By creating an account, you agree to the
Privacy Policy
and the
Terms and Policies
, and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.
>
By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies. Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.
>
OK, got it!
More
Certified fresh picks
New TV Tonight
Most Popular TV on RT
More
Certified fresh pick
Columns
Guides
Netflix’s 100 Best Movies Right Now (December 2023)
Link to Netflix’s 100 Best Movies Right Now (December 2023)The Best New TV Shows of 2023 Ranked
Link to The Best New TV Shows of 2023 RankedHubs
Awards Tour
Link to Awards TourWhat to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming
Link to What to Watch: In Theaters and On StreamingRT News
The Most Anticipated TV & Streaming Shows of December 2023
Link to The Most Anticipated TV & Streaming Shows of December 2023Rotten Tomatoes Awards Tour Podcast
Link to Rotten Tomatoes Awards Tour Podcast
An electrifying dramatization of historical events, Judas and the Black Messiah is a forceful condemnation of racial injustice -- and a major triumph for its director and stars. Read critic reviews
Judas and the Black Messiah is based on a true story that's hard to watch -- but the way it's told here makes it even harder to turn away. Read audience reviews
Watch Judas and the Black Messiah with a subscription on Max, rent on Vudu, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, or buy on Vudu, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video.
You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.
Fandango
AMCTheatres.com or AMC AppNew
Cinemark Coming Soon
We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.
Regal Coming Soon
We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.
Theater box office or somewhere else
FBI informant William O'Neal infiltrates the Illinois Black Panther Party and is tasked with keeping tabs on their charismatic leader, Chairman Fred Hampton. A career thief, O'Neal revels in the danger of manipulating both his comrades and his handler, Special Agent Roy Mitchell. Hampton's political prowess grows just as he's falling in love with fellow revolutionary Deborah Johnson. Meanwhile, a battle wages for O'Neal's soul. Will he align with the forces of good? Or subdue Hampton and The Panthers by any means, as FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover commands?
Rating: R (Violence|Pervasive Language)
Genre: History, Drama, Biography
Original Language: English
Director: Shaka King
Producer: Ryan Coogler, Charles D. King, Shaka King
Writer: Will Berson, Shaka King
Release Date (Theaters): wide
Release Date (Streaming):
Box Office (Gross USA): $5.0M
Runtime:
Distributor: Warner Bros
Production Co: BRON Studios, Participant Media, MACRO
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)
Somehow feeling both like a quasi-documentary but also an arthouse film, while in fact being a biopic, Judas and the Black Mesiah is a fascinating film telling a overlooked chapter of American history that damn well deserves to be told. It will make you mad, but it will also intrigue the hell out of you, and overall will spark conversation. It's also just damn well made with a style all its own and acting that knocks it out of the park. Easily one of the best films of the year.
Sometimes the movie feels devoid of energy or drama which given the material is a little surprising. Still, the central performances make it worth a viewing.
As we get older, we become more conscious of our time and the legacy we might leave. The long game no longer feels as long and therefore the implications of our actions become just as important as the ramifications. On the day of January 15th, 1990 William O'Neal was a forty-year-old man who'd been drinking with his uncle into the early-morning hours of Martin Luther King Day before running into westbound traffic on an expressway and jumping in front of a car that killed him. His death was ruled a suicide. Later that night, on PBS, the second part of the fourteen-part documentary series, Eyes on the Prize, would debut. The second part of the series chronicled the time period between the national emergence of Malcolm X in 1964 up through to the 1983 election of Harold Washington as the first African American mayor of Chicago. Included in this span of time is the year 1969 and in 1969 William O'Neal would turn twenty years-old. 1969 is also the year a twenty-one-year-old Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, would be assassinated. Judas and the Black Messiah tells the story of how these two men were connected to one another in a tale as old as scripture as indicated by its biblical title. The second part of the Eyes on the Prize documentary contains the only on-camera interview O'Neal ever gave. The interview itself was conducted on April 13, 1989 and in that interview O'Neal discussed his involvement with the Black Panther Party, how he was exploited by the powers that be and a puppet for the FBI who blackmailed him into infiltrating the Panthers and eventually laying out the floor plan of Hampton's apartment that would lead to the raid where law enforcement fired a total of ninety-nine shots, executing Hampton at point-blank range. The Gospel of Matthew 26:15 states that Judas committed his betrayal of Jesus in exchange for thirty pieces of silver, but as there's undoubtedly more to Judas' story and motivation than money the relationship between O'Neal and Hampton seems to have been equally as complicated. In that 1989 interview, O'Neal stated "I didn't feel like I had done anything. I didn't walk in there with guns. I didn't shoot him. FBI didn't do it. I felt somewhat like I was betrayed...I felt like, like perhaps I was on the wrong side. Yeah, yeah, I had my misgivings. I'm not going to sit here now and take the responsibility for the raid, you know, I'm not going to do that. I didn't pull the trigger. I didn't issue the warrant. I didn't put the guns in the apartment. So, I'm not going to take the responsibility for that, but I do feel like I was betrayed." O'Neal was clearly a tortured individual who was also very much in denial. According to Matthew 27:1–10, after learning that Jesus was to be crucified, Judas attempted to return the money he had been paid for his betrayal and committed suicide by hanging. Do we really blame Judas for Jesus' death though? No, of course not, just as O'Neal is only responsible for Hampton's death so far as being a young Black man in the midst of a race war who was targeted by J. Edgar Hoover's "America" as an "informant". read the whole review at www.reviewsfromabed.com
What a horrifying but powerful movie. Judas and the Black Messiah is one of those movies that doesn't feel like a movie at all, but an experience so mesmerizing you feel like you are a reluctant passenger observing real life events. The acting is just superb. The performances by LaKeith Stanfield as Bill O'Neal and especially Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton were outstanding. I still remember watching Daniel Kaluuya in an early season of Black Mirror, in 2011. It's a joy to watch someone outdo themselves in movie after movie. The script is amazing. That scene where J. Edgar Hoover (a mostly recognizable Martin Sheen) asks a massively loaded question to O'Neal's handler Roy (played by Jesse Plemons) was beyond tense. Hoover is pure evil. Judas delivers the most seething social commentary since Blindspotting.
Verified