Malcolm X (2pc) | Angela Bassett, O.L. Duke

Malcolm X (2pc) | Angela Bassett, O.L. Duke | A triumph....

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Malcolm X (2pc)

	Malcolm X (2pc) Angela Bassett, O.L. Duke Warner Home Video, 1994 average customer review:based on 148 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This is a landmark in world film, and I recommend the two-disc DVD version for its special features and excellent, sharp transfer.

Watching this finally made me understand why Malcolm X was the way he was. It distinguished Malcolm X from the Nation of Islam quite clearly and showed the amazing transformation from his beginnings as a poisoned hoodlum to a clear-minded speaker for Elijah Muhammad to a spiritual, independent leader and voice for the true Islam. Particularly effective is the sequence involving his pilgrimage to Mecca at the time of his separation from the Nation of Islam in 1964. Brilliant filmmaking and editing.

Visually, this is brilliant, thanks to some beautiful cinematography by Ernest Dickerson, and very true-to-life costume and stage design.

The acting is solid throughout. Denzel Washington obviously deserves the most credit for his seamless presentation of Malcolm X, both visually and verbally. He became Malcolm. Kudos as well to Delroy Lindo, Angela Bassett, Al Freeman for some equally solid performances.

If I had to pick a criticism, it is that, the rhetoric in the film is very heavy-handed and forced at several points in the movie. For example, the police captain who says (artificially), "That's too much power for one man to have", or the alleged speculation that the CIA was involved (wiretappers remarking in an aside, "compared to King, this guy's a lamb")-- maybe they were, but it didn't really add to the story in the way that they presented this subplot, or the attempt to try to put a happy ending on the film (kids standing up and shouting, "I am Malcolm X!") just didn't resonate well with me. Minor points, but worth noting.

In contrast, however, the opening sequence, although very heavy as well (with Malcolm's strong rhetoric superimposed over a burning American flag and the Rodney King police beating in LA) worked well as a powerful point of departure for the controversy and image of Malcolm X and a brilliant image of the history of race relations in America.

Some claim that the movie's length is excessive. I disagree. To reduce the complexity and history of Malcolm X to a convenient 1.5-2 hours would've been an injustice. The movie, at 3+ hours, feels as seamless and as significant as another memorable film, Gandhi.

At the time that this was released, I was put off by Spike Lee telling children to leave school to watch this film, and by the aggressive clothing marketing campaign as well (remember all the Malcolm X baseball caps in 1992?), and I equated it with self-promotion and corporate greed. Unfortunately, that put off my seeing this until it came out on video (and later, DVD).

Fortunately, this is 2007, and the film holds up very well today, and I'm assuming that it will stand on its own 50 years from now equally well, if not moreso. Unfortunately, this is 2007, and I think that Malcolm X's message of self-determination and dignity from 40-45 years ago is largely unrealized. Get the 2-disc DVD, but don't skip school to view it. ;-)

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A triumph....

The end of this movie closes with a bunch of people (mostly children) from around the world boldly declaring "I am Malcolm X". The symbolism was not lost on me. Malcolm X spoke to more than just a generation. He speaks to us from the grave even now. The fire and passion that colored his early religious segregationist speech died out shortly before he was murdered, tempered by a tolerance the world would be forever denied.

It is unclear what sort of mark Malcolm X WOULD have made on society had he lived, but what IS clear is that the influence he held on the civil rights movement is undeniable. His fire and the passions of men like Martin Luther King paved the way for some of the most historic moments in American history.

But this movie doesn't stop with painting that well-known picture of Malcolm. We see Malcolm in his early days as a street hustler. We see him courting his beloved Betty and eventually fathering some four children. We see him as the protector and provider for his family. We see him as inquisitive and stern. Self-assured with a desire to know everything. Curious but confident. Influential but, at times, easily influenced by circumstances in which he found himself.

Malcolm X was undoubtedly a profoundly flawed human being. But it is that same humanity that allowed him to reach such greatness. It is that humanity that we celebrate today, regardless of our own skin color.

While I'm certain some literary license was taken where necessary, I do believe this movie was about as accurate a depiction of Malcolm X as you can make, without running the risk of being disrespectful to the memories of Malcolm and his beloved Betty.

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Malcolm X

It's really an amazing film in which Mr. Freeman does an magnific interpretation. It hit you in your stomach the way it present the black people in the american society and really think.

Malcom X

Built around a commanding performance by Denzel Washington, Spike Lee's "Malcolm X" is the writer-director's most ambitious, impassioned film to date, as it presents a turbulent and eventful life filled with self- transformation. The Oscar-nominated Washington never lets you forget his hero's fiery charisma, the emotional impact and candor of his speeches, or the resentment he faced from both sides of the racial divide. With a top-notch cast, and Ernest Dickerson's fluid camerawork creating immediacy, "Malcolm X" bristles with energy and impact.

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"By any means necessary!"---Malcolm X

****(*)

MALCOLM X is Spike Lee's masterwork film, his most generally accessible work, and a biopic and homage to the oft-misunderstood Malcolm, here portrayed brilliantly by Denzel Washington.

Although Spike Lee occasionally falls into careless stylism (choppy, non-linear scenes and art school cinematographic indulgences mar the film in spots), the overwhelming tenor and drive of MALCOLM X reduces these flashes to dismissable annoyances.

Far better is the story, first of a young Malcolm Little, who from the day of his birth was forced to face institutionalized and endemic racism. The viewer's heart both breaks and flames as the ten year old Malcolm protests, "I get the best grades in class," only to be answered by the smarmy, smug white schoolmaster, "Yes, but you're a ni**er. And a lawyer is no proper job for a ni**er. Why don't you become a carpenter? Jesus was a carpenter, you know."

It is little wonder that the light-skinned red-haired Malcolm (whose mother was a Grenadine, and three-quarters white), turned his frustrated brilliance toward a sordid life of crime and drugs, making his mark in Harlem as "Detroit Red," a successful scam artist and pimp. A term in jail turned Malcolm around, converting him into a Black Muslim. Denzel Washington plays the ever-changing Malcolm with passion.

At first totally hypnotized by the Nation of Islam message that all devils are white and all whites are devils, Malcolm became a firebrand leader and spokesman for the African-American community, calling for their liberation "By any means necessary!" at exactly the moment that his contemporary, Dr. Martin Luther King called for black liberation through nonviolence. Although the two men seem to be opposites, they are far more alike than circumstance paints them. King figures only passingly in the film, but King's philosophical evolution was mirrored by Malcolm's, who likewise began moving toward a muscular nonviolence as he moved away from the parochial and exclusivist position of the NOI, and adopted a more global and cosmopolitan worldview of Islam as a unifying and all-inclusive force in the world.

His assassination (by extremists) in 1965 robbed the world of a man who was about to become a spokesperson for universal human dignity. Spike Lee's film is both a record of and a memorial to, Malcolm X, who he was, and who he was becoming. What he might have become . . . we will never really know.

FOUR STARS FOR THE FILM
FIVE STARS FOR THE MESSAGE

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