Malcolm X

An epic of truly grandiose proportions, Spike Lee's 201-minuter is exceptionally satisfying in terms of the performances, production values, and even the tone and sentiment. it was always going to be an ambitious project, filming the biography of one of the most powerful and outspoken black leaders, and Lee ran into trouble near the end as he ran way over budget, finishing the work with large donations and funding from well-known black celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey.

Much of the film conforms to the conventions of standard movie-biographies: Malcolm's life is put down in front of us didactally and detailed pretty much chronologically from happy-go-lucky young man to haranguing speaker for the Nation of Islam. We see him flatten his hair, go out with white girls, go to the big city, generally unthinking and carefree until he starts getting into trouble, eventually winding up in jail. Now Malcolm starts to become the phenomenon that is Malcolm X and the film changes tack dramatically. He converts to Islam, reads the dictionary and finds his demagogic voice. Only in the later scenes does Lee's film start to preach as most of Malcolm's famous speeches appear, and it's only through Denzel Washington's masterful performance (he should have won the Oscar) and the power of the speeches themselves that we, the audience, do not get bored by such an at times unnecessarily long film.

The closing scenes and sentiments (the appearance of Nelson Mandela, and the "we are all Malcolm X" message) show the film to be the intelligently-produced and well-made product that it is: Malcolm X succeeds on all levels, especially educationally, and in this way Spike Lee hasn't just presented us with the exciting chronicle of an important man's life, but given Malcolm's life more importance in the general sense, providing us with things to think over for ourselves today. Ignore the yahs in the X-baseball caps and see the film for what it is, thoughtful and meaningful entertainment.

Review by Spiros Gangas
Taken from EUFS Programme 1993-94