Malcolm X

365 Films

Entry #9

Malcolm X (1992)

Directed by Spike Lee

             This one is a doozy.  I have literally no idea where to begin with it.  If memory serves, the impetus for me to rent Malcolm X (I definitely did not see this in a theater) was based on research for a school biography paper of Malcolm X.  If that is any indication of what kind of student I was, then so be it.  From a young age I consistently maintained a strong predilection for the civil rights movement.  It’s kind of difficult to go to a Quaker school and not be somewhat enraptured by the speeches of King.  It’s only natural to assume that reading about the life of King and the actions of the SCLC would eventually lead me to the fascinating life story of Malcolm X.  In my movie-obsessed adolescent mind, I figured I could kill two birds with one stone by watching a movie and simultaneously absorb an incredible amount of research.  I got way more than I bargained for.  I have no idea what kind of paper I wrote based on that film (I’m sure it was terrible).  I have a very specific memory of my Mom and Brother purposefully keeping me from working on this paper because they wanted to go see some Brad Pitt snooze-fest called “Legends of the Fall.” I have never forgiven them for obstructing my studies.  Spike Lee has said in subsequent interviews that Malcolm X was a dream project for himself and cinematographer Ernest Dickerson when they met as graduate students in film school.  It is obvious from frame one that this film was made with fire in the belly.  It hits the ground running with an astonishingly vivid opening shot of  “Boston: The War Years” and never looks back.  Influenced by the opulent epics of Lean, Coppola, and Selznick, Spike Lee made what would become (and eventually bastardized) the new standard for the epic biographical film.  It’s well over three hours in length, spanning nearly the entirety of the first half of the twentieth century.  It features an incredibly deep bench of amazing performers in wonderfully nuanced roles, an unbelievable performance by Denzel Washington, and perhaps most memorably, an actual trip to Mecca.  Malcolm X is as captivating a piece of cinema that Hollywood has ever produced.  The film, of course, has its detractors who slam Mr. Lee with the usual pejoratives that he is sloppy, one-sided, and merely pushing a race-baiting agenda. Malcolm X is the perfect example of the kind of filmmaker Mr. Lee actually is as opposed to the angry ideologue he is most often painted as.  Malcolm X is a fascinating and complex portrait of a flawed, heroic human being that never forgets to be a gripping and dazzlingly cinematic story of America.