Malcolm X

This movie definitely did not get all of the praises that it deserved. Spike Lee basically brought Malcolm X's life story back to life. Every aspect of his life was in this film. Furthermore, Denzel put his heart and soul into this role. If you didn't know better you would say that he was Malcolm X for real. I still don't understand why he didn't win an oscar for this role. Everybody else in the movie like Angela Bassett and Al Freeman did their thing too. This is a film that you will enjoy forever.

With tremendous performances by Denzel Washington (Malcolm X) and Angela Bassett (Betty Shabazz), Spike Lee delivers what is arguably his greatest movie which will stand the test of time.

Lee does a masterful job in showing how this was truly a partnership between husband and wife, which - in my opinion - is too often ignored by authors/historians when chronicling the life of Malcolm X.

It is Betty Shabazz who enlightens Malcolm X on any number of subjects, including the philandering of Elijah Muhammad (Al Freeman Jr.), and how the young women are tossed to the side like bags of trash, especially in their greatest time of emotional need, when they are pregnant.

The process is arduous and painful for Malcolm X to finally admit that the evidence is overwhelming that his mentor & teacher has used his position of power to manipulate the fragility of others for crass carnal desires. It begins the chasm between the pair that ultimately led to the assassination of Malcolm X.

What remains the most powerful single scene is Malcolm X walking down the street while the ills of the 'hood are played out before him. So much is said in so little time in depicting the black holocaust of the mind, body and soul.

Lee takes cinema to a powerful and dramatic level that is rarely achieved. This is an epic tale of spiritual growth, family and how jealousy & hatred can destroy so much in the instant it takes me to finish this sentence.

Excellent! Denzel Washington's performance was dead on and true. Kudos to Spike Lee for telling the story of Malcolm X. The music was even awesome and accurate for the time periods. This is a must see if you either don't know who Malcolm X is or if you think he was just a militant angry black man. He was brilliant.

I'm not going to waste my time on this much more than say Spike Lee's movie making skills are terrible. The only good parts of the movie were when he gets killed and the credits roll. Don't waste your time with this garbage. You want a good movie full of black actors go see Ray.

Spike Lee is a great film maker. Denzel Washington is a great actor (Could any other actor have given the spirit of Malcolm such a realistic treatment?). That said, something is missing here. We know that there are various academic revisionist trends in history and politics that reflect the changing appreciations of latter generations, and not always for the better. That trend is apparent here. The missing element is the struggle going on around Malcolm as he tries honestly to break out of the black nationalist isolation of the Nation of Islam and articulate the necessary strategy to drive the civil rights movement in America and the revolutionary national liberation struggles internationally forward. What is also missing is the sense that Malcolm, in the early 1960's, stood as the LONE voice of the rage of the ghettos, against the white establishment and their black hangers-on like Dr. King. There was a Chinese Wall between his calls to break with the Kennedys, Johnsons and the rest of the Democratic Party, his calls for black armed self-defense, North,South and West and the policies of what he rightly called the "Uncle Tom" black establishment which kowtowed to that white establishment. There still is. No amount of revisionism will erase that distinction. What those interested in Malcolm need to do is read his Autobiography of Malcolm X (see all my reviews for my take on Malcolm) and other books from the 1960's struggles. Still, this film is a good primer in order to learn how the most honest revolutionary black liberation fighter in 20th century America earned his place in history.