One Night in Miami

Powerful film. Regina King did such a great job at directing and the film looked beautiful. The subject matter was incredibly interesting and couldn't have come at a better time.

This just became available on Amazon streaming movies. The "one night" reference is Feb 25th, 1964 in Miami, the night Cassius Clay (22), (later known as Muhammad Ali), surprised boxing fans by defeating Sonny Liston who threw in the towel after 6 rounds.

The four prominent friends were Malcolm X, Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke. You see, I was in college at that time, all of them are were known to me, so seeing this stage play turned into a movie has a very relevant meaning.

Although it is based on a true story of real people, unfortunately there are no tape recordings of their conversations that night, and some facts were changed for dramatic effect, so it isn't possible to determine how "accurate" it is. Nonetheless it is a good depiction of the times and what these black men were facing, and some of the 1960s drive to overcome the rampant discrimination that existed. Of course the issue still isn't behind us, there is still a ways to go.

This is a good movie, especially for those of us who remember those days. I find myself wondering how it comes across to the younger (under 60) age groups.

A stylish and promising debut from Regina King. While not as constantly engaging as I was hoping, it still features brilliant performances all around and some of the strongest directing I've seen all year; I would love to see the Oscar winning actress become an Oscar nominated director!

Overall, I think this was a very fine film. Affecting, intelligent. And a great "meeting of the minds" what-if scenario. Some things were better than others. The actor who played Ali nailed a young version of The Greatest. The Malcolm X character was played with some of the real Malcom's fervor and zeal. But having read Malcom X's biography, I find the real Malcolm was stronger and, at times, more severe than he was played here. I understand though the film wanted to capture more of his humanity and vulnerability, which I could appreciate. The boxing scenes didn't look like anything like the way the real Ali fought and were a bit flat. And it took quite a while for the film to get going. But once it does... once it brings these four great men together, it's very good.

Oscar winning actress Regina King makes her directorial debut in One Night in Miami.

Adapted from a stage play. It imagines a meeting in a hotel after Cassius Clay's (Eli Goree) defeat of Sonny Liston in 1964 when he was crowned world heavyweight champion.

Clay and his friends Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr) and Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir) get together to celebrate, joke, argue and debate about being black in 1960s America.

The pre credit sequence concentrates on each of these men. It shows the causal and non casual racism some of them encounter.

The crux of the movie is Clay deciding to become a Muslim and join the Nation of Islam which also entails changing his name.

Meanwhile Malcolm X is considering his future with the Nation of Islam which is causing tensions within the group.

Jim Brown wants to leave football and become an actor. It is better for his knees.

Cooke has realised that there is money to be made if white groups such as The Rolling Stones have big hits with the songs he has written.

Malcolm X though is angry with Cooke for not taking a strong political stance. He reminds Cooke that black people are being killed everyday. Others tell Malcolm that he is being too hard on Cooke.

Deep down this is a political movie, chiming with the Black Lives Matter debate.

The stagebound nature of this movie is hard to ignore. It also takes a while to get going but becomes compelling when Malcolm X and Sam Cooke clash.

The ensemble cast do bounce off well from each other. The best performance for me was by Leslie Odom Jr, especially his singing voice.

It has to be noted that within a year after this fictionalised meeting that both Malcolm X and Sam Cooke would be dead.