Mixing fact with fiction — and in places it's difficult to separate the two — "Panther" is a noble attempt to tell the story of the rise of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s.
But director Mario Van Peebles ("New Jack City," "Posse") and his screenwriter-father Melvin Van Peebles ("Sweet Sweetback") have tried to cram so much into their movie that the results are invariably superficial.
"Panther" is an undeniably fast-paced piece of entertainment, however, albeit a loose and flabby one, with wildly pointed anecdotes and sledgehammer messages. But in the end the characters get short shrift and some facts are blurred or ignored.
The central character is fictional, a disillusioned Vietnam veteran named Judge (Kadeem Har-di-son, of the TV series "A Different World"), and the film follows his relationship with real-life Black Panther founders Huey P. Newton (played by Marcus Chong, nephew of hippie comic Tommy Chong) and Bobby Seale (Courtney B. Vance, "The Adventures of Huck Finn").
Spinning off of a true incident that was instrumental in establishing the party — the need for a stoplight at a dangerous intersection in a black neighborhood of Oakland, Calif. — the film unflinchingly demonstrates the brutal racism and violence that permeated the Oakland police. (And if the Rodney King incident is any indication, we haven't come as far as we'd like to think.)
Arming themselves with a thorough knowledge of the law, Newton and Seale come together to observe a march for the desired stoplight, which has been organized by a local minister (veteran comic Dick Gregory). When the police arrive, however, what began as a peaceful demonstration erupts into a violent confrontation. As a result, Newton and Seale formally organize the Black Panther Party, arm themselves with weapons and begin peacefully demonstrating and monitoring the police. (One of the strongest images in the film is the sight of Panthers holding rifles in military fashion, intimidating police by invoking a law that allows weapons to be carried in public view.)
This brings the FBI on the scene and initially they simply assign a local cop named Brimmer (Joe Don Baker) to observe party members and take notes. Later, he is told to recruit Judge as a spy — but Judge refuses to turn on his friends and begins working with Newton to feed false information to the cops. Unfortunately, since he can't tell other party members what he's doing, fellow Panther Tyrone (Bokeem Woodbine) begins to think Judge is a traitor.
Ultimately, J. Edgar Hoover (Richard Dysart) labels the Panthers "Public Enemy No. 1," and in the end the FBI teams up with mobsters to flood the Oakland ghettos with heroin and "neutralize" the black community at large.
Whether this "final solution," as one of the mobsters calls it, is true, is just one of the film's charges that has never been proven. But in this context, blaming today's drug problems on the FBI's 1970 retaliation efforts toward the Black Panthers seems like a copout.
The film also glosses over violence and sexual abuse within the Panthers, which has been do-cu-men-ted, and in a move that seems rather misogynistic virtually ignores the contributions of female members of the group.
The film does have its powerful moments, however, especially in the re-creation of the Panthers march on the California Legislature and a scene where Brimmer tells the stern FBI agent in charge that the Panther's 10-point program reminds him of the Constitution, "with some of the Bill of Rights thrown in."
"Panther's" ultimate downfall is in its thin characterizations. Portrayals of members of the FBI — to include a black agent — as racist and violent lean toward ridiculous caricature. And whenever J. Edgar Hoover comes on the scene, he's so dyspeptic that the audience may wonder if he's going to have a heart attack.
And it doesn't help that Mario Van Peebles borrows Oliver Stone's "JFK" directing techniques, blending documentary footage, black-and-white pseudo-newsreel footage and wild camera angles. The result is a jumbled delivery of material that might be more effective with a less distracting narrative structure. As it is, there is simply no emotional link with the audience.
"Panther" is rated R for considerable violence, profanity and vulgarity, and some drug abuse.