Movies, like novels and all other forms of literature, are an avenue through which the paradoxes of life are picked up, dusted off, and examined. There has never been a movie which has exemplified that concept more than the 2018 blockbuster Black Panther.
While we have come to expect dazzlingly beautiful fight scenes and significant amounts of character development from a Marvel film, this movie has done something that very few—if any—films have done in the age of the Superhero: address the social, political, and ideological issues facing the black community in the United States and around the world.
It is incredibly easy to sit in the movie theatre and be drawn into the world of the Wakandans. It is incredibly easy to follow T’Challa as he ascends to the highest political and social position in his country following his father’s death. It is also incredibly east to pick up the multiple strains of social commentary pulsing through the film’s plot like vibranium pulses through the ground of the Black Panther’s ancestral home. From comments on growing up fatherless to digs at the current political administration; “build bridges…not walls,” this film is much more socially conscious than any other superhero film I have ever encountered. While some films may deal with higher order philosophical questions like whether it is okay to kill or “what makes us human,” this film digs it’s claws into issues that are actively affecting millions of people all around the world and it does so in a film that doesn’t compromise entertainment value for intelligence.
If you haven’t seen the movie, now’s your chance to get out before I ruin anything.
Okay, now that the warning is out of the way, I’m going to glance off one of the most important issues explored in the movie: Loyalty.
Although the film is centered around the exploits of a fictional country, the questions of loyalty amongst the black community that are fielded in the film are quite real. Loyalty is explored multiple times throughout the film; it begins with T’Chaka’s younger brother—N’Jobu—seemingly betraying Wakanda in order to arm poor black communities in the United States. He wishes to arm them against the systems of individual and institutional oppression preventing American blacks from ascending to heights similar to those of Wakandan blacks. Though N’Jobu’s quest was ultimately a violent one, it was born of a desire to help those less fortunate than he and his country. Regardless of whether his quest was a just one or not, his decision to address American racism put him at odds with his own family—a family which was attached to the status quo. Ultimately, he had to choose between his loyalties to his own country or his loyalties to his son—who is American, but also of his—and thus Wakandan—blood. If you look past his methods, this man was noble at heart and his eventual death makes one question one’s own allegiance. I can’t help but wonder which side of that initial conflict I would have been on…
The question of loyalty is invoked by T’Challa and Killmonger’s conflict later in the film. As these two characters circle each other like the panthers T’Challa’s mantel is fashioned after, it becomes clear that both sides have valid perspectives. While Eric Killmonger—son of a slain father and product of Californian street education—advocates for the arming of the oppressed as a way to ensure a global revolution for the oppressed, T’Challa—also the son of a slain father, but the product of a life of luxury—advocates for continued isolation in order to prevent Wakandan weapons from falling into “the wrong hands.”
It is easy to label Killmonger a warmonger, but the reality of the situation is that he lived a life of struggle that could have easily been avoided had Waknada stepped in and aided the impoverished and oppressed members of the African Diaspora. Had King T’Chaka made the decision to help those in need instead of only helping those under his rule, Killmonger would never have existed as he did. As T’Challa came to see, Eric Killmonger was a “monster of [Wakanda’s] own making,” and he had a point. However, the fact remains that his methods left much to be desired.
Loyalty as a concept is invoked multiple other times in the film, but I will leave those to be discovered upon seeing the movie. It bears saying, however, that the motif of loyalty and the manner in which it manifested itself in Killermonger and T’Challa’s ideologies can be paralleled with how different members of the American black community treat each in real life. Some members of the black community use their social positioning to attain higher social status and then proceed to protect that achieved status with everything they have—even at the expense of others; T’Chaka and T’Challa’s protectionist/isolationist ideologies mirror such a stance. Other members of the black community, however, are bound by their social positioning, and those that make it out of the situations they were born in cannot do so without remembering where they came form and how many people are still in such situations. This ultimately leads them to attempt helping those they can—via the ballot or the bullet.
Ultimately, this film is riddled with concepts such as this, and half the fun of seeing it is decoding the messages which have been woven into the plotline and character development.
If you haven’t seen the movie, go. It will give you a lot to think about.
