Malcolm X (1992)

That was an excellent one.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Malcolm X2 And A Half Out Of 5Malcolm X is a character driven feature that focuses on justifying the characters rather than rechecking the material twice or even a clock for that matter. The journey of the protagonist depicted in here is a bit overstretched and not elaborated which comes off as a bit downer but since there is enough concrete material to feed the audience throughout the course of it, one can easily neglect it. It is short on technical aspects like cinematography, background score, art design, sound department and editing although is rich on costume and production design. The writing follows a rudimentary process of a rigid structure that is extracted directly from the textbook, it lacks maturity and smarter approach. The screenplay by Arnold Perl and Spike Lee is effective and creates a greater impact than anticipated among the viewers but unfortunately it also lags a lot. Spike Lee; the screenwriter and director, has done a tremendous work on executing the script on screen and it is undeniably Lee's feature as he speaks volume in every frame. The performance objective is taken hold by Denzel Washington with conviction and he does carry it all on his shoulder with head held high for around 200 minutes. Malcolm X is a process of suffering for attaining an uneven and imbalance state of peace that results in so latter, that the audience barely cares about the outcomes for they are having a time of their life encountering just the process.

Denzel anchors this biopic about the life of activist Malcolm X. You learn about his young beginnings, youthful upbringing, how he became transformed into the Islamic leader, then his eventual disillusionment and further transformation.This story was a fascinating view with strong acting by Denzel. He seems to thrive in characters where he can go a little over the top though, and at times, that can get a bit tiring, much like in the more recent Fences, where his non-stop action is something you cannot keep up with. Malcolm X was a bit like that, but you saw that Malcolm had a deliberateness and an immediacy to his actions that pushed action.The setting was inner city with excellent costumes. His friend shorty and his other crew grew up to support and eventually adore Malcolm, but he also gained enemies. As his views started to venture from the strict Islam line, he created enemies. The film got a bit slow at times, but Angela Basset as his girl helped bring a nice evenness to the plot by solidly standing by her man thru thick and thin. This movie was a fascinating view of how a person can change colors, while always still doing the right thing according to their convictions. Such morals as Islam play a big role in our world today. Watching Malcolm X will help you understand how there can be good parts to it, but also abuses of it that are not good.I hope you enjoy Malcolm X.

No disrespect to Malcolm X, I admire him so I watched this movie and I didn't like it. After watching this I decided that I don't like Spike Lee's movies, he's a bad director. I haven't liked one of his movies yet. What's with the long dancing scenes at the beginning of the movie? The end is so melodramatic, I'm pretty sure it's Spike Lee's voice saying why you should respect Malcolm X... nobody cares what your vision of life is, rather tell me a story and then you can catch my attention , but the voice over spoils it. It's also ridiculously long and it's unnecessary. Sorry Spike, you had to stay more centered to tell a good story, you couldn't shape your admiration for this man into a fine movie.

Malcolm X serves as great companion to the original text. The autobiography provides an extremely detailed overview of Malcolm's life but lacks any feeling. The film corrects this by injecting emotion into the story. Spike Lee creates a narrative that is easier for the viewer to follow and relate with Malcolm. However, the film had to sacrifice a lot of information provided in the autobiography. Many parts that I thought were important, such as Malcolm's family, were left out in the interest of time. Even then the film is around 3 hours long and feels more like two films in one. This might have been done by Lee to emphasize the change in Malcolm's life before and after prison. In the first part of the film, Lee applies a soft focus to the camera. The soft focus clouds the screen and might have been a representation of Malcolm's unclear thoughts about life before he went to prison. Another example of Lee's cinematography is when Malcolm submits to Islam while in prison. Malcolm is completely covered by shadows with a light piercing through the cell bars. This could represent the moment Malcolm ridded himself of his sinful identity (shadows) and embraced Allah (light). The acting in the film was phenomenal, especially Denzel Washington's performance as Malcolm X. Washington not only looked the part but seemed to fully portray the essence of Malcolm. When I read the novel, Washington was exactly how I imagined Malcolm X to look and act. My only other issue with the movie was the final scene with the schoolchildren and Nelson Mandela. While it was interesting, it felt disjointed from the rest of movie and was distracting. In all the film was great and can definitely stand on its own but I feel the best experience is to pair reading the novel and watching the film.