Reviewed by Alicia Glass
A Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan finds his whole life and values being challenged when he’s sentenced to a 3 year prison term surrounded by the enemy.
Tom Sizemore is really terrific in this movie, and it should come as no surprise – he’s great at the ranting kind of characters, the ones that go off on entire tirades, and this character is certainly no exception. Leroy Lowe loves his Klan, and as the movie starts off, has no doubt that they will save him from ignominious prison time. His cellmate Bubba, while not too bright, is a loyal white Klansmen and the two of them have an okay time, until Bubba chokes on a potato and dies. This particular prison is known for one thing, as the warden soon shares with Leroy – potatoes. Diggin, plantin, harvestin and sellin, and eatin yes, potatoes. My Lord, does that man go on about potatoes. Then, two truly irritating things happen to the true Klansmen. One, he gets a new cellmate that’s the warden’s idea of ironic joke rehabilitation, a Mexican laborer who won’t shut the hell up! And two, Leroy discovers a completely unexpected connection with the Mexican maid who comes to clean the Warden’s office daily. She drops him a paper note during one of those interminable sessions while the Warden goes on about potatoes, and of course Leroy can’t read it because the note is in Spanish, so! His gum-chewing hair obsessed cellmate Emilio has to be convinced to read it, and yet another unexpected connection is made – with a non-white person to boot.
It’s actually a rather good movie, very funny with the closeup restraint shots of men ranting, and the unlikely romance of the Mexican maid and the reforming Klansman. Please bear in mind though, that only in prison could this happen – the outside world would have been remarkably different. I think that might be kind of the point however. Hector Jimenez as Emilio and Olga Segura as Madalena the Maid, both co-produced the movie and Olga was actually at the Fest to answer questions. An adorable rough gem of a movie, White Knight gets a Movie Moxie approval rating of 7 Rants!