Esoteric Movie Review: Black Panther (2018)

Black Panther (2018) is generally considered to be one of the best movies the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) ever produced, harping back to the days when MCU films were worth watching.  This article is based on a previous review I wrote of the flick, closer to the time it was released.  But instead of revising the original article, I decided to rework it altogether, this time focusing solely on esoteric or less-notable aspects of Black Panther.

KILMONGER: THE MCU'S MOST-REALISTIC VILLIAN

Besides "Thanos" and probably "Loki", "Kilmonger" (Michael B. Jordan) is the MCU's most memorable villain.  For instance, he's the only bad guy to have been made a member of "the Guardians of the Multiverse".

One of the reasons Micheal B. Jordan was able to portray this character so well is because, unlike virtually all other MCU villains (with the exception of "the Vulture"), this depiction of "Kilmonger" is motivated by a legitimate, real-life gripe.  And that's the historical oppression of Black people by European colonial powers.

I would venture to say that many, if not most Blacks possess some type of deep-rooted resentment or animosity for the way their people have been treated by Whites.  That's very understandable when you recognize the history between these two groups.  So in fact, the character of "Kilmonger" was so realistic from a sentimental standpoint that Michael B. Jordan nearly lost his mind in portraying him.

That's just one of the ways in which this film toyed with the sensibilities of Black people.  It also fits in with the West's newfound and ongoing effort to empathize with and garner the sympathies of non-White people whom it has traditionally oppressed.   I even read somewhere that Wakanda and its relationship with vibranium (both of which are fictional), as portrayed in this movie, is meant to be an allusion to how African countries would most likely prosper, if not for the fact that their resources have been and continue to be unfairly depleted by the West.

PAN-AFRICANISM

I find it strange - for lack of a better word - that through the creation of the "Black Panther" back in the 1960s and the eventual release of this blockbuster film some 50 years later, Stan Lee has perhaps successfully promoted Pan-Africanism in mainstream Hollywood more than any Black insider ever has.

While in South Korea, the characters of "Okoye" (Danai Gurira), "T'Challa" (Chadwick Boseman) and "Nakia" (Lupita Nyong'o) are pictured wearing, in sequence, outfits respectively colored red, black and green, which are the colors of Pan-Africanism.  Their respective characters also wear these colors throughout most of the film.  That reference is so clever that I wouldn't have picked up on it if not for IMDB's Black Panther trivia page.

Also, just as a side note, this was one of the earliest MCU outings to be partially set in an Asian country.  Such settings have become more common in the MCU since the release of this film, which logically would have something to do with China's growing business interest in Hollywood.

Near the end of the flick, "Kilmonger" gives the monologue "just bury me in the ocean, with my ancestors that jumped from the ships, 'cause they knew death was better than bondage".  Then, the camera zooms out to an image of a giant black panther.

The character of the "Black Panther" slightly predates the creation of the political Black Panther Party (BPP), which also originated in 1966.  In any event, as a result of the BPP, who were very influential in their heyday, the image of a black panther has come to associated with the ideology of Black equality being achieved through violent revolution.  And that was obviously its intended significance in the above scene, when you also take the beliefs of "Kilmonger" into consideration.

But the above observations are not to imply that this movie is some type of hardcore exercise in Black liberation ideology.  To the contrary, it ultimately concludes with the protagonist risking the life of himself and his comrades in defeating "Kilmonger".  And in doing so, he basically saves the world from Black (instead of White) imperialism.

666 WATCH

One of the most memorable images from Black Panther comes near the beginning, when the character of "Okoye" appears to be piloting the protagonist's technologically-advanced jet telepathically.  While doing so, she is in this position:

It does appear that "Okoye" is making a gesture similar to the 666 hand sign, most specifically with her left hand.  But even if that's not the case, it's still pretty interesting that the makers of the film chose this pose, which is known as the lotus position.  One of the reasons that decision is intriguing is because the lotus position is primarily associated with Indian Hindusim and its goddess Shiva, not anything to do with Africa.

During the 2010s, it seemed that there was a piqued interest in Hinduism in the United States.  For instance, I remember once coming across one of those "illuminati" videos on YouTube that featured an image of Ciara dressed as Shiva.  I haven't been able to track down that clip since coming across it so many years ago, but here's a link to a Sports Illustrated article, published in 2013, in which Ciara's future husband, Russell Wilson, takes on the lotus position,  And he does so very much similarly to "Okoye", with the left hand appearing as if it's making to 666 sign, which apparently is not the way the lotus position is traditionally practiced.

Here's another article from 2016 in which Beyoncé and Coldplay are being criticized for cultural appropriation, in relation to Hinduism, due to the imagery featured on their music video Hymn for the Weekend.  The author of the article is basically arguing that when it comes to India, outsiders tend the stereotype the country along the lines of its traditional mystic beliefs.  But again, references to Eastern mysticism in general seemed to have been popular during the 2010s, sorta reminiscent to the way the Beatles introduced such standards to Anglo-American culture back in the 1960s though more recently being focused on imagery rather than propagating such beliefs per se.

You may have also noticed in the above pic that there's something like pyramids or triangles in the background.  Such shapes - which we have come to understand, within the context of Hollywood, as being symbolic of the Illuminati - were all over the place in Black Panther.

DEPICTIONS OF AFRICA TO OBLIVIOUS AUDIENCES

To some degree, Black Panther deserves credit for not depicting Africa as it is typically shown in Western media, as being impoverished and/or war torn.  But that doesn't mean that the movie is devoid of stereotypical representations of what some Westerners used to refer to as "the Dark Continent".

When the European colonial powers first started visiting sub-Saharan Africa during their Age of Expansion, of course they were intrigued by many of the cultures they encountered.  Those are now what are generally referred to as traditional African cultures, as since then the Motherland has been heavily urbanized, and many, if not most of Africa's residents are in fact global citizens.  So these days, you're not likely to come across an African looking like this...

...or this...

Notice what appears to be an upside-down cross
in the middle of the mouthplate.

Over 90% of the population of Africa is either Christian or Muslim.  By contrast "People of the Book", i.e. Muslims, Christians and Jews combined, make up about 70% of the US population.

Said "Book" would most pointedly be a reference to the Torah, i.e. the first five books of the Bible, which Christians, Jews and Muslims tend to subscribe to in common.  The Torah, at least as far as the Israelites are concerned, outlaws the likes of tattoos...

...and tribal scars...

...all of which seems to be in abundance in Black Panther.  And the point being made here is that, you're more likely to see those types of body modifications in places like the US than you are in modern Africa.

Of course, the Wakandans themselves aren't "People of the Book".  There are a few instances in the film where we see the characters given shoutouts to their pagan gods...

...or praising "the ancestors".

There's this pervasive line of thinking in non-White academia which posits that since the colonial Europeans basically outlawed traditional religions and replaced them with Christianity, then the oppressed, in reclaiming their freedom or what have you, should harp back to such belief systems which predate the arrival of the Whiteman.  That's the kind of ideology I feel Black Panther is promoting, even if not subliminally.  But what such adherents never acknowledge is that those selfsame belief systems totally failed in preventing such people from being dominated by Christian Whites to begin with.

All of this may sound pretty heavy-handed when analyzing what is in actuality a comic book movie.  But perhaps the main issue with Black Panther is how so many people proceeded to take the film as if it were real life, considering it to be a legitimately "groundbreaking celebration of Black culture".  The well-respected New York Times even referred to it as "a defining moment for Black America" - again, a movie based on a Marvel superhero.  This phenomenon of the masses taking Black Panther seriously - with some even thinking that Wakanda actually exists - also illustrates just how powerful movie magic can be.

Maybe such was to be expected considering how little African-Americans know of their ancestral homeland, coupled with the fact that Hollywood finally produced a movie that features a prosperous (fictional) African nation.  The only other flick I can think of which did likewise was Coming to America (1988).  But no one took that seriously since, after all, it is a comedy and furthermore, primarily set in the US.

THE DEATH OF CHADWICK BOSEMAN

I found the death of Chadwick Boseman unusually interesting for two reasons.  First was the fact that virtually no one - not even his employers, Marvel Studios - knew of Chadwick's terminal cancer until he was on his deathbed.  According to Wikipedia, he "was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016" but decided to hide it from just about everyone outside of his family members.  Perhaps it can be said that was a wise decision, as it's unlikely Marvel would have cast him as "Black Panther" if they understood that he might die shortly thereafter.  But what has been reported as the actual reason he didn't inform them was Boseman being under the impression that he had beat the cancer.

Secondly, going back to how some African-Americans received Black Panther as if it were real life, Chadwick Boseman could have been considered as a legitimate Black leader.  That's not to say that I ever heard of him making any type of profound or revolutionary political statement.  But if he did decide to go that route, at the time of his death he would have had the ear of more Black Americans than perhaps any of their political leaders outside of Obama.  After all, Boseman was "T'Challa, the King of Wakanda".

The reason acknowledging that fact is significant from a conspiratorial standpoint is because remember that at the time of Chadwick's unexpected death, the George Floyd / Black Lives Matter were in full swing.  So imagine if you had "the Black Panther" himself going on TV and further encouraging his people to fight the system.  The Black masses would have taken a statement like that coming from Boseman, a Hollywood actor who effectively portrayed a Black superhero in a major motion picture, more seriously than if were coming from any of their own questionable leaders.

THE "GORILLA CHANT"

Through Black Panther, Hollywood was able to reintroduce or reinforce to 21st century audiences longstanding Black stereotypes to 21st century.  For example, likening a Black person to a monkey has long been considered to be an insult.  But in the film, we have this:

"M'Baku" (Winston Duke) is one of the coolest characters in the movie.  And his tribe doesn't imitate monkeys per se but rather gorillas, who are in fact powerful animals.  But again, you have to question Marvel's motive in using this style, as well as keeping in mind how non-Black racist audiences may interpret it.

And to illustrate that this may not simply be an artistic coincidence on the part of Marvel Studios, take into consideration the mid-credits scene from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023).  Therein we have a group of characters portrayed by African-American actor Jonathan Majors who, inexplicably in this case, proceed to make monkey sounds:

WHITEMAN BOWING DOWN TO A BLACKMAN

There is a scene in Black Panther whereas a White character, "Agent Ross" (Martin Freeman), bows down to a Black character, "M'Baku".  However of the four characters who do bow down to him, with the other three being Black, "Agent Ross" is also the first to quickly rise up from that position.

That imagery is of inline with the Western powers-that-be unprecedented respect in recent times of Blacks and other minorities.  I believe there are at least two major reasons, one widely known while and the other not so much, as to why countries like the United States are now behaving this way.  The first has to do with population growth and secondly and somewhat relatedly, the prospect of World War III.

BALD-HEADED BLACK WOMEN

I found it interesting that Black Panther featured an entire troupe of bald-headed Black women (the "Dora Milage"), including one of the main characters, "Okoye",  Meanwhile, you'd be hard-pressed to find a bald-headed White woman in any Hollywood film.

There is of course the "Ancient One" (Tilda Swinton) who appears in Dr. Strange (2016) and one of the Avengers' films.  But her presence isn't nearly as ubiquitous in the MCU as the "Dora Milage", who are featured in both "Black Panther" movies, the two "Infinity War" films, Captain America: Civil War (2016),  The Falcon and Winter Soldier (2021), and I also think one or two of them pop up in What If? (2021).

I believe that Hollywood is more committed to portraying beautiful White women than their Black counterparts.  For example, you may come across a movie every now and then whereas a Black actress, even the lead, has some type of facial scar or blemish.  But you're not likely to see that with White actresses.  And no, I'm not saying that a woman with a bald head can't be beautiful.  But generally speaking, such a style doesn't tend to be aesthetically pleasing.

THE BLOODIED HERO

This is just something I've noticed in Hollywood films in general, that, unlike the past, these days movies and especially those of the action variety tend to feature scenes whereas the protagonist is grotesquely bloodied.

THE PURPLE DRINK

The "Heart-Shaped Herb", an important plot device in "Black Panther" lore, is traditionally green, not purple.  I don't know when the color change was implemented.  But it is interesting that "T'Challa" is instructed to consume a purple liquid in the name of being transported "to the ancestral plane", i.e. having a psychedelic experience...

...at the same time populations such as young African-Americans were dealing with an increasing number of addictions to "lean", a deadly and illicit beverage which is also known as "purple drank".

CONCLUSION

Black Panther is an interesting film on a number of levels.  It contains many of the same types of esoteric nuances which are common in MCU outings.  But it was taken more seriously than the others, due to mass ignorance surrounding Africa and the longing of many viewers for a viable minority superhero.