The most interesting section of The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, and where I think the film as a whole should have spent much more time on—as it speaks directly to our #BlackLives/#BlackOpenCarry moment—concerns police oppression in the civil rights era. For example, one of the documentary's best moments is when, with footage and talking heads, it explains how Black Panthers would patrol cop cars patrolling the black neighborhood.

If there was a traffic stop, the Panthers would exit their car, stand at a safe distance from the incident, but make it clear to the officer that they were armed and ready to "throw down." When the officer issued a ticket or a warning or whatever and returned to his squad car, the Panthers would return to their vehicle and continue patrolling the police. This kind of thing clearly freaked out the officers, some of whom (now old and retired) are interviewed. The Black Panthers made a deep impression on them.

Now, you would think that a documentary that had access to civil-rights-era white police officers and militant blacks would provide lots and lots of details about their interactions, tensions, and confrontations, but no, this is not what happens at all. Vanguard, sadly, spends much of its time describing the boring and irrelevant power struggles between the biggest egos in the organization. by Charles Mudede