YMMV / Judas and the Black Messiah

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Why is O'Neal crying after failing to get Hampton to support bombing city hall? Because it means Hampton won't get arrested and so will be assassinated? Because it means he has to invest more energy in being around him, bringing their relationship even closer? Or because he truly wanted to convince himself that Fred was a bad person by getting him to agree to attacks on civilians, therefore justifying his duplicity?
• Complete Monster: J. Edgar Hoover himself is depicted here as an oppressive racist who wants to crush the Black Panther Party and ensure a "Black Messiah" never rises to change America's white nationalist way of life. Hoover spreads hateful propaganda and promotes bigotry among his FBI subordinates and other law enforcement outlets, leading to regular bouts of brutality and abuse against Black people by those in power. Endorsing or blackmailing people to go undercover in the Black Panthers to subvert the group's message, Hoover has one of his informants torture a Panther to death to secure his cover, then frames a prominent Panther for it. In his quest to silence the voice of the Black Panthers, Hoover has had a hand in all manner of murder or wrongful imprisonment of its leaders, and ultimately stages the assassination of Fred Hampton, which results in the slayings of several Panthers, the near-murder of even more, and the arrest of any survivors of the attack.
• Iron Woobie: Fred Hampton. A good man who fought hard for his people's rights, which got him repeatedly targeted by the FBI, who are not only dead set on putting him behind bars, but making him suffer. Fred's demise may be expected, but that doesn't make the young leader's untimely end anything less than tragic. But no matter what's thrown his way, Fred stays strong for his brothers and sisters and never once even considers stepping away from his cause.
• Jerkass Woobie: William O'Neal is a criminal trying to take the Black Panthers down from within to save his ass from imprisonment. He also spends a good amount of the film disgusted with his actions and terrified of what might happen if he's found out. Ultimately, Bill's conscience is unable to beat his cowardice, as every time he tries to put an end to his operation, the blackmail over his head convinces him otherwise. Decades later his guilt finally overpowers him though, and he kills himself on the night his confessions are televised.
• Love to Hate: Many commentators spoke highly of Martin Sheen's brief, but chilling screen time as J Edgar Hoover for capturing just how vile the man really was. When they weren't complaining about how off the makeup and prosthetics done to touch up his appearance looked, that is.
• Nightmare Fuel: The climax, where the viewer is Forced to Watch Fred Hampton, his pregnant girlfriend and their friends get shot and arrested.
• Questionable Casting: While Daniel Kaluuya's performance as Fred Hampton was widely acclaimed and received numerous awards and nominations, the drastic age difference between Kaluuya (32 at the time of the film's release) and the real Hampton (21 at the time of his death) did raise some eyebrows. Also applies to Lakeith Stanfield, who was nearly a decade older than Bill O'Neal was at the time of Hampton's death (20).
• Tear Jerker: Deborah worrying about her yet to be born child with Hampton, and how Hampton may not live to see him. This turns out to be the case, as Hampton was shot dead 25 days before his son was born, and it does not help that Deborah was physically present at his murder and forced to look away. (see Nightmare Fuel above)
• The Woobie: Deborah Johnson certainly counts by virtue of being engaged to a man whose ruthlessly targeted by the FBI, which means that all of Fred's suffering is her suffering. Nowhere is this more personified than when a pregnant Deborah is there to witness her fiancé get murdered right after enduring a hailstorm of gunfire.

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