Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

BlacKkKlansman 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 9, 2018

Director Spike Lee's (Malcolm X, Do the Right Thing) BlacKkKlansman is a compelling film focused on race relations in 1970s America, but its also an occasionally tonally disparate film that can be as humorously light as it can be maliciously dark. That contrast between funny and frightening helps ease the burden, but not lessen the impact, of the film's examination of racial strife and hate. Lee allows the script to flow and his actors to have fun at the Ku Klux Klan's expense, but when the narrative grows more extreme and the cards are down, Lee makes sure to turn off the comedy faucet and give the film's full attention and respect to the dangerous situations and fight against despicable extremism.

Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is Colorado Springs' first police officer of color. His first assignment places him in the records room, a dead-end endeavor, but he's quickly promoted to undercover work and given the assignment to attend a political rally featuring flamboyant speaker Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins). Stallworth's mission is to gauge audience reaction to the calls for violence. There, he meets the president of Colorado College's black student union, Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier), with whom he forms a close bond but does not disclose his identity as an undercover police officer. Stallworth later finds an advertisement for the Ku Klux Klan and calls the number listed. He presents himself as a white man eager to join and is invited to do so. Of course, his skin color would be prohibitive to such an undertaking, so he and the CSPD employ the help of Jewish Detective Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) to pose as Stallworth in person while Stallworth continues to build the relationship over the phone, first with the local chapter Klan president Walter Breachway (Ryan Eggold) and later with the Klan's Grand Wizard himself, David Duke (Topher Grace). As Stallworth and Zimmerman, as Stallworth, become further entrenched in the Klan, one suspicious Klansman, Felix Kendrickson (Jasper Pääkkönen), angles to oust Zimmerman as Jewish.

In BlacKkKlansman, undertones are overtones and subtleties are not-so-subtle. Lee's film builds around challenging topics and it faces them head-on, with plenty of humor to play against the more serious currents that shape the movie. He tells a story of organized bigotry and two men's infiltration into one of the most notorious organizations in American history but finds an agreeable balance between the picture's blunt presentation of racism within the Klan's inner circle and the somewhat lighter moments that play around its periphery. Lee masterfully balances the two and the film would not work without the synchronicity they create. John David Washington, who is the son of Denzel Washington and, before BlacKkKlansman, best known for his role in the HBO series Ballers, commands the screen and the material, much like his father, bringing a passion and wit to the part, understanding both the serious currents in which he finds himself (and into which he has placed Flip Zimmerman) while also using humor almost as a defense mechanism against hate.

Adam Driver, who is one of this reviewer's favorite actors working today (anyone who has yet to see Paterson needs to pick it up when ordering BlacKkKlansman), is Washington's match as the Jewish cop who is pulled into Stallworth's investigation as the in-person go-between. Much of the film's drama comes from his his infiltration of the Klan, posing as a non-Jewish white man who must proclaim, and prove, his hatred for both people of color and for people of Jewish descent. Whether he can maintain his cover, build his character, prove his "worth," and tolerate the endless stream of antisemitism and racism is where the movie is most likely to leave the audience on the edge of the seat, particularly as one of the Klansmen, Kendrickson, immediately suspects that there's something "off" about Zimmerman, who is posing as Stallworth. Improvisation, a vocabulary of hate, pretend violent acts on people of color (namely his partner, Stallworth), and pledges of allegiance to racism and the Klan are what will keep him alive and on mission, with Stallworth never far behind, monitoring the situation through hidden microphones and stepping into action as needed to save Zimmerman when he's caught misspeaking or when Kendrickson demand he take a polygraph test to prove the heritage he claims.

BlacKkKlansman 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

Spike Lee and Cinematographer Chayse Irvin shot BlacKkKlansman on film, and this UHD comes sourced from a 4K digital intermediate. The improvements to image stability, clarity, and textural fulfillment are obvious over the Blu-ray, which is very good on its own but lacks the finesse, subtlety, and total accuracy of this UHD. It's gorgeously filmic. Grain is refined and constant, perhaps a little more obvious on the UHD, but the end product is absolutely of cinematic quality. Textural improvements are many. Facial details bear the fruits of the increase in resolution and the UHD reveals the finest pores, hairs, and imperfections with astonishing clarity that even the first-rate Blu-ray cannot match. The same goes for clothes and environments; crisply pressed police uniforms are just as inherently complex as more dense period attire. An exterior neighborhood scene in chapter 11 looks amazing. The clarity and texture on trees, bushes, and surrounding houses is to die for. A few softer edge shots are in play and inherent to the film source.

The Dolby Vision coloring proves to be one of the more subtle applications in recent memory, bolstering flesh tones to firmer, fuller standards and finding an agreeable, though often more subtle than some, level of refinement and increase in boldness to the film's period hues. Clothes, for example, are modestly darker and enjoy a slight increase in saturation. But the movie doesn't really call for much more than that. To more intensely bolster the palette, to push the punchiness and exaggerate the brightest primaries any further would be to undo so much of what makes the movie's visual tones a major complimentary factor to capturing the era in which it is set. The Dolby Vision parameters do tighten black levels but don't entirely eliminate some of the slight raising seen in a handful of scenes throughout the movie, but viewers will note some very impressively deep and even nighttime black exteriors as well. As with the Blu-ray, artifacts are absent save for a handful of blink-and-miss speckles.

BlacKkKlansman 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

BlacKkKlansman's Dolby Atmos soundtrack proves its worth from the beginning with full-stage musical saturation, good low end depth, and rich, vibrant instrumental clarity. Musical excellence is a mainstay throughout the film. Ture's speech is wonderfully wide and naturally reverberating around the entire stage (which includes a mild above-stage component, one of precious few that take any advantage at all of the height channels), while crowd cheers are perfectly immersive and detailed. The track brings every environment to life with impressive spacing and saturation. Police station office din is audibly compelling and sonically detailed. The sound of a ringing phone, which is fairly prominent in the film (phone conversations in general drive much of the plot), often emanates with a sharp, clear ringing across the back, which is amplified considerably in the final minutes. A few gunshots strike with commanding power. Dialogue drives most of the film, however, and the spoken word enjoys rich, natural clarity, firm center placement save for when expansion is necessary, and prioritization above all competing elements.

BlacKkKlansman 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

BlacKkKlansman's UHD release contains a featurette and an extended trailer, which are also included on the bundled Blu-ray. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code is included with purchase. The release ship with an embossed slipcover.

• A Spike Lee Joint (2160p, SDR, 5:09): The real Ron Stallworth, Jordan Peele, Topher Grace, John David Washington, Laura Harrier, and Harry Belafonte recount the core story, hiring Spike Lee to direct and the qualities he brought to the film, casting and performances, the movie's depiction of racism, and more.
• BlacKkKlansman Extended Trailer Featuring Prince's "Mary Don't You Weep" (2160p, SDR, 4:29): A longer format preview for the film set to Prince's song.

BlacKkKlansman 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

BlacKkKlansman champions black power but also proper and peaceful race relations; many of the film's best scenes involve Stallworth, alongside one or several white characters with whom he works at the police station, laughing at David Duke, who is unknowingly speaking to a black man on the other side of the telephone. Conversely, the film's most challenging scene features an elderly black man named Jerome Turner (played by the legendary Harry Belafonte) telling stories of the Klan's torture of colored people while several Klan initiates are sworn into the organization in a juxtaposed sequence. Lee makes his points sharply and directly but does so with care and consideration for his characters and his audience. Heroes and villains are clear-cut, and the winner to come out of it all is a tremendously entertaining yet very pointed film that was clearly a passion project for Lee, an acclaimed filmmaker who may have just released his best work yet. Universal's UHD is very good, skimpy on the extras but otherwise boasting a beautiful 2160p/Dolby Vision video transfer and a wonderful Dolby Atmos soundtrack. Highly recommended.