Malcolm X

I was only familiar with the history and influence of Malcolm X before I saw the film so I can't really judge it's faithfulness or accuracy. But as a film, I thought it was great. I really like Spike Lee; he keeps things fast-paced and interesting with his camera angles and colours/lighting. For awhile after Malcolm first begins his activism with the nation of Islam, you find yourself conflicted, both respecting the man and often disagreeing with him. Lee handles it well without condemning or supporting really, just showing Malcolm's gradual transition in his beliefs. The inserted documentary footage, especially at the end, shows how Malcolm's words still relate today. Someone commented that they only watched an hour of the movie and Lee doesn't know how to tell a story but maybe if they would be slightly more open-minded, realize it's not a literal adaptation of the autobiography, and actually finish the film, they could understand that Lee does not just want to tell the story of one man but rather wants it to reflect the struggle of a race. I really enjoyed the film; it was long but never slow and definitely worth watching.

As I watched MALCOLM X, I was surprised how much I liked the film and how interesting it was. So interesting, in fact, that I soon was inspired to read "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" that was compiled and written by Alex Haley. Then, I read a rather interesting (warts and all) account of Malcolm X's mentor, Elijah Mohammad.

From what I have since learned from these and other sources, I was quite impressed at the movie--it seemed to try very hard to get the story right. Malcolm X's life was neither over-glorified nor was he portrayed the opposite--the story seemed to be quite balanced and without a serious ax to grind. It would have been easy to make the movie just an attack on the Nation of Islam or an attempt to make the title character some sort of saint.

As for the acting, it was super. The script, excellent. The direction, first-rate. An excellent film that everyone should see--it is fascinating from start to finish.

Malcolm X cannot truthfully be said to be one of Spike Lee's best films, but it was an important step for him, perhaps the most important one of his career. This biopic, and Spike's fifth full-length feature, makes only partial sense as a follow-up to his greatest classics, Do The Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues and Jungle Fever, the three films in which he created and developed his unique voice and made a name for himself as one of the most prominent independent filmmakers in the US; Spike's own voice can barely be heard in Malcolm X, and his usually immediately recognizable trademarks are tough to point out. The reason is that for the first time in his career Spike Lee took a step back, and he is not the dominant personality in the film; the dominant personality is Malcolm X himself, and Spike let Malcolm's voice be heard throughout the film louder than anything else.

So Malcolm X is less a work of art and more a statement than Spike's previous films. It's scope is immensely larger than anything he did before – it does, after all, span 200 minutes – and is therefore, naturally, not as tight and focused as Do The Right Thing or Jungle Fever; but in Malcolm X Spike tackles head on the very subjects he treated with symbolism and subtlety in those films, and it was therefore a natural and important progression for him, and a logical continuation of those movies, and in it he proved that he has more than one voice. In a biopic, and for that matter, in any docu-drama, the most important factor is for the director to care about the subject, and I'm yet to see a director who's more passionate about his subject than Mr. Lee.

Malcolm X boasts a huge ensemble casts, with wonderful performances by Delroy Lindo, Angela Bassette, Al Freeman Jr. (in a harrowing performance as Muslim extremist Elijah Muhammad) and Spike Lee himself – but the movie is still entirely Malcolm X's, and therefore Denzel Washington's. Spike's protégé gave a lifetime performance in Mo' Better Blues two years earlier, but he surpassed it with his gut-wrenching portrayal of Malcolm X, which earned him an Oscar nomination (unfortunately lost to Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman) and based him as one of the best actors of his generation.

Although Malcolm X is not Spike Lee's best film, it's an important film that needed to be made, and it's a good thing that Spike was the one to do it. More than it's an impressive, moving, beautiful movie – and it is - Malcolm X's story is a story that must be heard, and this biopic is a film that, truly, every cultured and intelligent person needs to watch.

A great movie if overlong and slightly unfocused.

Washington carried the film with a great performance worthy of an Oscar nomination if not a win which might have been guaranteed had the director managed to focus.

Spike Lee did a good job as director which is saying a lot, given the historical scope, danger of offense, and controversy of the project. His one weak area in this film was editing. There is no reason this movie couldn't have been half an hour shorter. Right off the bat, there were unnecessarily lingering camera shots and scenes that could have omitted. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of Spike himself sliding under a woman's skirt and mugging the camera. That scene not only failed to further the story but instead made the audience stand up and say, "Hey, that's Spike looking at us!" Lee's biggest editing mistake was based on his desire to tell the story of Malcolm X AND tell the story of the African-American experience. That's more than enough for several movies so why cram it all under one title? After a clear scene illustrating X's life, Lee would move to a large dance hall to illustrate the richness of the African-American experience. A quick shot of the dance hall would have been sufficient. Instead the far away shots were maintained for too long and when the focus moved back to specific characters it moved to the character played by Lee himself. Why? I don't know. It certainly didn't help us to understand X any better. The ending with children saying "I am Malcolm X" also went on too long and should have been part of a separate feature. The cameos were distracting. The movie could have been tighter, shorter, and better except that Spike Lee wanted to put everything, including the kitchen sink, into it.

That being said, it is a great movie and I'm glad I invested the three and a half hours to watch it.

This film was absolutely brilliant. Spike Lee is a genius. We're studying him in my film class and a lot of his works are controversial, but I think they're necessary. Malcolm X was beautifully acted by Denzel. He took Malcolm's mannerisms and passion into himself and carved this wonderful character. The film traced him from a young kid to his Nat'list days to his death. His beliefs were different, but he never compromised himself. Considering where he came from and the time he grew up in, no one can really yell and scream about why he was the way he was. So many want to glorify King as the only leader of the time, but X was a leader in his own right. His ideas weren't that different from King's. His approach was honest and a response to the times. Denzel shows every emotion in his face that seemed to formulate in his mind. I seriously thought of him as Malcolm. He really had to earn people's respect from the background he came from and I liked that. Nothing was glossed over and no stone left unturned. Malcolm X is a great film and worth the watch!