By Any Means (MA) – 107 minutes

Inspired by fact, By Any Means is a historical crime thriller.

On 10^th January, 1966 US civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer (Giancarlo Esposito) was murdered in Mississippi by the Ku Klux Klan.

The reason: his work on recruiting Black Americans to vote.

With less than 40 per cent of eligible coloured voters registered, the businessman offered to pay the $2 poll tax* for those who couldn’t afford it. 

That prompted the ire of the KKK, led by Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers (Josh Lucas), who declared it a shame what the nation had become.

He and his fellow clansmen shot up and firebombed Dahmer’s home.

The FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover, was determined to bring those responsible to justice.

This was a time when there were few Black agents in the bureau and blatant racism was practiced in the south.

African American Special FBI Agent Wayne Strider (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) – who had worked cases in Chicago – had moved back to his home territory of Mississippi. 

With no progress being made on the Dahmer case, Strider was called into action.

His job was merely to facilitate the efforts of an off the books mafia hitman, turned FBI informant, in Gregory Scarpa (Mark Wahlberg).

What he found was a ruthless mercenary who extracted confessions by any means (take that to mean extreme violence, including murder). 

Understandably, Strider – who operated by the book – was shocked and outraged.

But his own methodology of nailing the perpetrators changed markedly after he and 

his loyal wife, Alison (Nicole Beharie) also became targets.

By Any Means highlights the historic Black/White divide (the fact that African Americans were treated as second class citizens) with alarming clarity.

Beyond that, it shows how playing by the rules simply didn’t work.

To overcome the inadequacy of the so-called niceties of federal investigation (read that to refer to proper process), the FBI stepped way outside the boundaries. 

Dealing with the subject matter that it does, the film is extremely violent. It doesn’t hold back.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II turns in an evolving persona as Wayne Strider, a respectful husband and restrained FBI employee whose head is turned.

With a smirk all but permanently etched on his face, Mark Wahlberg revels in his bad guy persona, a man who talks with his fists and his gun.

Nicole Beharie is well cast as Strider’s devoted wife, who is no pushover.

Among others of note in the cast is David Strathairn, who plays Strider’s less than empathetic FBI boss.

While the movie is engaging to a point, I wasn’t fully sold. 

I didn’t totally buy Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s transformation from the almost shy silent type to the vigilante readily prepared to break the rules.

Nevertheless, the film pointedly captures a dark time in America’s history.

Rated MA, it scores a 7 out of 10.