Malcolm X (1992)

Wonderful character development!

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

"Malcom X" is an epic and historical biopic of Malcom X and the most prominent years of his influence as a public figure for race in America. Above anything else, "Malcom X" feels like a character piece considering the film's fine attention to the character's gradual and believable change throughout the movie. Helmed by Spike Lee, this nearly three and a half hour film covers Malcom X's life as a public figure on race, supremacy, and then equality. The audience is treated to one of the best and most devoted Denzel Washington performances ever put to celluloid and solid acting from the rest of the cast. While the film takes a few liberties and might feel biased at times, the epic dives into several important aspects of the character's life which makes this a character piece above anything else. Yes the film explores race in an in-depth and thorough way. Anyone interested in an epic and historical look at one of the most controversial figures in U.S. history, "Malcom X" offers a one of a kind experience that is unforgettable.

A stunning performance by Denzel Washington (Oscar-nominated) carries this film literally into cinematic excellence. He stars as the titled character, the controversial Black Nationalist Leader who is easily one of the most interesting people who lived during the 20th Century. Spike Lee's uncompromising direction focuses on X's life. From his very early childhood to his violent death, the audience is given lots and lots information on the character as the film runs about 195 minutes. A good supporting cast helps, but this is Washington's show from the very start. His performance is very dominant and this is easily one of the best jobs that was never honored with an Academy Award. Brilliant biopic. 5 stars out of 5.

Meaningful. I want to discuss and debate so much the movie designed by Spike Lee, and discover what he is able to teach us, the character of this movie's title. Malcolm X. This time Denzel Washington was not a policeman, he portrayed a sinner in the abrahamic religions sense of the term, who has become almost a saint, demonstrating that the Afro-American community has his own destiny to draw, and can get out of the fate that the WASPs have created for them into the United States society. His belief, the religion revealed to him, made him born again and at last a martyr for all the causes he has defended for his conception of justice, as Islam and Afro-American community civil and political rights. This man have inspired so many men and women, in the twentieth century it has begun with Garvey and Earl Little, his father, and it continues with King, Park, Mandela, the Black Panthers, the Afro-Americans, the Africans of all tribes till now, and another cultures. Faithful combat, spiritually and ideologically ; black nationalism, panafricanism. I loved when he talked about mental and cultural colonization of Afro-Americans and Africans, and the mental and cultural migration from America to Africa. I was also impressed by how he was depicted in the second part of the movie, rightful in all means, the type of man who was not perfect but seemed perfect, a true leader, someone who would have been necessary for a time like our. A man who have transformed many lives for their own reconstructions as individuals.But there is a contradiction when he said that, while he talked about, after his pilgrimage, to have all races, one humanity connected to one god. Nation of Islam and Sunnism were wrong, because the true religion of Africans, are ethnics religions, all expressed with different languages in each geographical place. Not an universalism like Islam, and the language who had served itself to colonize the non-Arabs, and non-Muslims, because the said holy language was the Arabic. And before the slavery of black people processed by Europeans, Turks, Arabs and Persians have made exactly the same, and they were all Muslims. The true language of Malcolm X must have been one of the thousand from the thousand ethnies and lands of West Africa. And because his ancestors were natives of certain lands of Africa, he was a native of the nature which makes these lands, any dualist-transcendental-metaphysical-idealistic thing.Moreover, some like Black Panthers have understood that capitalism was also a colonization and that is for that reason that the situation cannot change in Africa : Private interests conduced by business and occidental states are stealing their lands, all their resources. They pay African people for nothing, but sell it for much. The militaries or politicians are receiving by them all power and money in exchange of the control of their people, within national borders made by these occidental states long before the said independence of Africa. The brains are going to occidental universities, are abandoning their own languages for English or french language, and became alienated by the market and western values, while the poorest try to survive in his own country with hungry, sickness, death, wars, or to pass the sea to European Union abandoning his own culture in the depth of the sea or in an occidental city ghetto.What do you think it's teaching us? The mental and cultural colonization of Afro-Americans and Africans, and the mental and cultural migration from America to Africa.

Malcolm X, Spike Lee's epic portrayal of the street hustler turned spokesman for the Nation of Islam who was assassinated at the age of 39, is undoubtedly the director's most assured, complex and mature film, but it is a wonder that it was ever made at all. Controversy began long before production even started, with heavy criticism laid on the fact that Norman Jewison was lined up direct what many, including Lee, felt was a project a black director should handle. When Jewison gracefully bowed out and Lee took over, many still felt that the polarising activist's life would somehow be whitewashed, labelling Lee a 'Buppie' (middle-class African-American).The irony of many of the statements thrown at the biopic before it was even made was highlighted, and the resulting film was a 3 hour 20 minute testament to Lee's persistence at getting his hands on a story he had dreamt about making since film school. The studio had thrown in a budget for and insisted on a 2 hour 15 minute running time, but Lee, understanding that the contradictions and evolution of Malcolm's teachings and the many events and influences that helped shape the man demanded a longer running time. When the budget was exhausted, Lee called in for donations from the African-American community, and many of them obliged. Somehow, it's still too short to really get to heart of Malcolm, but it's certainly a far better film than it would have been had Lee not been so insistent at bringing his vision to the screen.Malcolm's life was crammed with incident, and Lee does a decent job getting almost everything in. Flashbacks to his childhood, when his mother and father were tormented by the Ku Klux Klan and his family lived under the constant threat of death, are juxtaposed with his early life as a sharp-suited, ambitious numbers runner in Harlem known as Red, working underneath gangster West Indian Archie (Delroy Lindo). His actions soon land him in prison, where he meets Baines (Albert Hall), a fellow inmate working for Elijah Muhammad (Al Freeman Jr.) and the Nation of Islam. Baines teaches Malcolm that the drugs and alcohol he enjoys so much are simply ways for the white man to keep the black man in their place, and that the white man is, without exception, the devil. Malcolm leaves prison as Malcolm X, ditching the 'slave name' given to him by his ancestor's owners, and is transformed into an extremely enigmatic and convincing spokesman for the Nation of Islam.The rush of excitement and danger of the opening third soon gives way to a more serious tone, as Malcolm's radical views on segregation under the watchful eye of 'the honourable' Elijah Muhammad makes him an incredibly controversial figure; loved, hated and feared in equal measure. Malcolm's popularity soon causes rifts and jealousy within the ranks of the Nation, and he sees the man who once took him under his wing become a deadly nemesis. His wife Betty Shabazz (Angela Bassett) receives threatening phone calls, and the family's house is set ablaze. Lee's technical discipline throughout these moments, especially for a director who usually embraces visual flourishes, ensures that a steady, gloomy momentum builds up towards Malcolm's eye-opening pilgrimage to Mecca and eventual murder.A film of such emotional weight also calls for a great performance, and Denzel Washington delivers in spades. Even when Malcolm is at his most questionable, Washington imbues the character with the same charm, wit and magnetism that no doubt saw him sore through the ranks of the Nation and become loved by many. When the pace sags, and it frequently does, Washington manages to draw you back in with his effortless screen presence. The film manages to paint a well- rounded picture of a man who underwent a few radical changes in his life, thanks both to Lee's thoughtful approach and Washington's incredible performance. Lee does go slightly overboard with his worship of the man at the climax, as Ossie Davis reads a eulogy over a montage of children declaring "I am Malcolm X!" and a speech from Nelson Mandela, but this doesn't do too much damage to what is engrossing, detailed and fearless biopic of an inspirational man.