It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.

You believe that someone out of the past can enter and take possession of a living being?

We may be true with the past, but the past is not through with us.

Welcome back to The Next Picture Show, a movie The Week podcast devoted to a classic film and the way it shaped our thoughts on a current release. I'm Keith Phipps here again with Scott Tobias. Genevieve Kosky. I'm Tasha Robinson. On the first half of this episode, we discussed Spike Lee's hard-fought-for 1992 biopic Malcolm X. With this half, we'll look at Lee's new film, another diving of the past, and another fascinating story. Lusely based on a true story and co-written by among others, Lee's Shyrock collaborator, Kevin Wilmot, Black Klansman follows Ron Stalworth, the first black detective in Colorado Springs, who, in the late 1970s 70s developed a phone relationship with an unlikely partner, the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.

After noticing an ad in the newspaper, Stalworth called a number looking for new recruits,

and, before long, he was on his way to joining, sight unseen, of course.

Physical interactions fell to his partner, although Stalworth's phone relationship continued,

eventually putting me in touch with the clan's grand wizard, David

Duke. Beyond those broad strokes, Lee's film takes quite a few liberties with Star Wars story.

The Star Wars partner, Flip Zimmerman, played by Adam Driver, struggles with the danger of going

undercover, a danger compounded by being Jewish, and the psychic toll of immersing himself in a culture

of hate. Meanwhile, Star Wars strikes up a relationship with

Patrice, played by Laura Harrier, the head of Colorado College's black student union, who's

unaware that he's been sent to infiltrate her group. And in time, Flip and Ron come to realize

the KKK has Patrice and her organization in its sights. Those are all embellishments,

and the nature of those liberties has sparked some debate from the director of another Next Picture show a subject, which we'll get into later in the

episode. But as cinematic elements, they help turn Black Klansman into a thrilling suspense

story that balances tension with humor, while finding room to explore Star Wars changing

sense of identity, institutional racism, and other matters, all leading up to one of the

year's most breathtaking endings.

We'll talk it all over after the break.

The KKK is planning an attack.

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