Script Review: #90 BlacKkKlansman (2018) | WGA 101 Greatest Scripts of the 21st Century
BlacKkKlansman blends drama, humor, and suspense to deliver a scorching, uproarious, and timely indictment of white supremacy.
Logline: Ron Stallworth, an African-American police officer from Colorado, successfully infiltrates the local Ku Klux Klan outfit. Alongside his partner, the duo work to sabotage and stop their plans.
Written by: Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee
Based on: BlacKkKlansman by Ron Stallworth
Pages: 124
Number of scenes: 165
If truth is stranger than fiction, then the premise of BlacKkKlansman is so bizarre that it has to be true. And it is! An African-American detective did infiltrate the KKK local chapter in Colorado Springs without them being any wiser. You can’t make this stuff up.
Here’s a brief synopsis: Having joined the Colorado Spring Police Department as the first African-American in the 1970s, Ron Stallworth answers a classified ad in the papers about a local division of the KKK and successfully becomes a member of the KKK. But when they want to meet him, Stallworth recruits his Jewish colleague, Chuck, to pose as him while he continues to talk with the KKK over the phone. Meanwhile, Stallworth begins dating Patrice Dumas, the head of the Black Student Union at Colorado College, whom he met during his first assignment. But when the KKK begins to target Patrice, Stallworth must find a way to stop them from carrying out a bombing without compromising his identity.
The resulting screenplay is a thriller laced with drama. It’s also outrageously funny which occurs organically given the sheer absurdity of the scenario- the characters grounded in reality delivering reasonable reactions to what they come up against- but it’s almost immediately sobered by the dangerous stakes the characters are facing. As the stakes rise, the tension builds, as in this scene when the wife of a Klansman has to plant a bomb in the mailbox.
It is decidedly not a cuddly feel-good story about race relations. The script is deadly serious about pointing out how white supremacy is ingrained in society and the ways it manifests against anyone the KKK perceives as ‘Other’, including Chuck who is reminded of his Jewishness in the face of their Antisemitism. Although the story takes place during the 70s, the writers want to draw a direct line to connect the past and the present. They accomplish this by:
Opening the script with a clip from Gone in the Wind, the David O’Selznick adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s novel that is both a landmark in cinema history and is controversial in its romanticizing the South during the Civil War and portrayal of African-American characters.
Inter-cutting between a scene of newly inducted KKK members watching D.W. Griffith’s KKK-glorifying feature, The Birth of a Nation, and Jerome Tompkins explaining how that film fueled the atrocious mob lynching and murder of Jesse Washington in the name of ‘justice’.
Foreshadowing on page 49 the ways in which white supremacists like David Duke would smuggle their agenda into the mainstream by canvassing them under politically acceptable grievances such as “Affirmative Action, Immigration, Crime, Tax Reform, Welfare Cheats.”
And in the finished film, but not included in the script, a last-minute addition was made by incorporating real footage from the 2017 Charlottesville rally and murder of Heather Hyer.
Readers might be stunned at the exchange on page 76 where Grand Wizard David Duke claims he doesn’t hate black people at all; he just thinks “[they] need to be with their own”, conflating his relationship with his childhood housekeeper Pinky like Scarlett and Mammy, failing to realize that he is unable to look at Pinky as a real person and instead views her as a stereotype… a lot of racists don’t think they’re racist. They disguise it under pseudo-science, religious beliefs, and all sorts of excuses- but they know exactly what they are doing.
Who are the characters in BlacKkKlansman?
These are the characters that appear in the BlacKkKlansman screenplay:
Ron Stallworth – “Black, 21, Handsome, Intelligent, sporting a good sized Afro, rebellious but straight laced by most 1970’s standards”
Chuck – “late 20's, long hair, looks like anything but a Cop, he however is somewhat of a closed-off guy, all business”
Jimmy Rose - 30's, Ron and Chuck’s colleague on the assignment
Patrice Dumas – “Mid 20's, an Angela Davis Afro, she wears a Hip array of Militant wear, Black Leather Jacket, Love Beads but on her it looks fantastic.”
David Duke – “30's has a trim Red Mustache and a mop of Sandy Hair which drapes his ears. He plays the role of a Southern Gent but his piercing pale-Blue Eyes reveal a Monster.”
Ken O'Dell – “White Male, 30's… affable by nature, Short and Stocky, with a Crew Cut and small Mustache.”
Butch – “A White Male, 30's… He wears Corduroy Pants, Uncombed Hair to his Neck and a Fu Manchu.”
Louise – Butch’s wife – “White Woman, 30's, Proper and Good-Looking. A Gold Cross dangles from her Neck.”
Sgt. Trapp – “A softspoken White Man in his 40's.”
Chief Taggert – “White, smart, 50's, in a Police Uniform, a Man ready for change.
Sgt. Morris – “White, Mid-30's, a regular guy but there is something dangerous there
Duane – 20’s
If you’ve watched the film, then you will be immediately struck by the fact that several names have been changed.
Chuck becomes Flip Zimmerman
Butch becomes Felix Kendrickson
Ken O’Dell becomes Walter Breachway
Louise becomes Connie Kendrickson
Duane becomes Ivanhoe
Chief Taggert becomes Chief Bridges
Sgt. Morris becomes Patrolman Andy Landers
But their roles and dialogue remain intact, more or less.
How much of what happens in BlacKkKlansman is real?
And how much is made up?
Apart from the premise, a number of events are taken from the record. Stallworth’s first undercover assignment was observing Kwame Ture’s speech at a nightclub- this is true. He also did communicate with former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke over the phone, get his membership card signed by Duke, and served as his bodyguard when Duke visited Colorado Springs! He also sabotaged several cross burnings and parades by providing the police with intel. This much is true.
Here's where artistic license was taken:
The entire bombing plot.
The role of Patrice, which led to the creation of the aforementioned bombing plot.
Chuck’s role was expanded, as were the stakes.
The timeline of events is compressed.
Stallworth never revealed his deception to David Duke as he does in the script.
Now some might cry foul at making up stuff at the expense of real events, especially one as significant as BlacKkKlansman. But a screenplay for a feature film is not a documentary; so long as it is true to its intention, that’s what matters.
Who are the writers of BlacKkKlansman?
BlacKkKlansman was written by Kevin Wilmott and Spike Lee who worked off the original draft penned by David Rabinowitz and Charlie Wachtel. Their combined efforts culminated in winning the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for all four writers; that makes BlacKkKlansman the first entry on the WGA’s list (starting from the bottom) to win an Oscar in the Screenplay category.
The story about how this screenplay and eventual film came about deserves its own mention; aspiring screenwriters, pay attention.
How was BlacKkKlansman written?
In 2015, David Rabinowitz and Charlie Wachtel stumbled on Stallworth’s memoir, Black Klansman. The two writers were unknowns- they didn’t even have a lawyer or agent. But they both knew that there was a movie in this story, so they sent an email to the publisher to see if the rights had been bought. The publisher passed the email to Stallworth’s manager and much to their surprise, the rights were available.
Even though one hurdle was out of the way, Rabinowitz and Wachtel still needed to prove themselves given that they had no track record. On top of this, they were aware that they were two white guys telling the experiences of an African-American man. They needed to convince Stallworth to believe in their vision for the adaptation while being respectful.
Rabinowitz and Wachtel drew up a one-page summary of their vision that included the following elements:
A proposed logline
A brief synopsis
A list of key characters.
The desired tone — “suspenseful and tense, while preserving some of the story’s natural comedy.”
A list of comps - references included were Argo, American Hustle, Inglourious Basterds, Do the Right Thing, The Informant, and Donnie Brasco.
However, there was one other major hurdle in their way: Neither of them had an agent or a lawyer! What the writers did was look online for a contract template that basically said they had non-exclusive permission to adapt the book into a screenplay. If a production company wanted the script by Rabinowitz and Wachtel, they’d have to separately acquire the book rights because they never actually had it in the first place!
From spec script to being made an offer, the entire duration took seven months. After producers like Jordan Peele and Jason Blum boarded the project, Spike Lee and Kevin Wilmott eventually took over the project to give it their personal touch, but for the most part, it seems that Rabinowitz and Wachtel’s version remained intact enough to receive a writing credit.
Takeaways for beginners who want to adapt a screenplay:
If you are in the beginning stages of pursuing intellectual property (IP), adopt an entrepreneurial mindset and reach out to find out about the rights of a story before starting. It costs nothing to ask.
If you have no track record, prove your authority as the right person to adapt the IP by drawing up a one-page summary that includes a proposed logline, brief synopsis, list of key characters, the desired tone, and a list of comps.
If you don’t have an agent or lawyer- or can’t afford to buy the rights, but you are committed to the project- find a contract template online that gives you non-exclusive permission to adapt the IP. Yes, you run the risk that a production company might acquire the rights to the IP and dismiss your adaptation; or you might get lucky.
The screenplay for a Spike Lee feature (or a ‘joint’, as he calls it) is only half as interesting as the filmed version because it cannot completely capture the visual flourish and magic that Lee brings to each of his pictures. But the groundwork is still laid out on the page for the maestro to begin his work, and the screenplay for BlacKkKlansman is a stellar foundation for Lee to build his cathedral.
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