Review of Malcolm X (1992) by Pedro P — 05 Oct 2008

I have a lot of respect for Malcolm X (both the man and the movie). Spike Lee's effort is about three hours and twenty minutes, longer than the average person's attention span (my own included).

What this epic does well is show the events that influenced Malcolm X to be who we remember by. The film states that he was trying to be white in order to fit in during the first part of his life, but that stops when he meets a Black Muslim who teaches him the ways of the honorable Elijah Mohammad.

From there, the territory from history class becomes more familiar. All of the material presented in the film, though, is interesting. The cinematography is admirable and the art direction draws you into X's supposed environment.

Denzel Washington completely inhibits the mannerisms and speeches of Malcolm, giving one of the best performances I have ever seen. I was mostly in complete empathy with the man (except for his delving into drugs), and even when I was not, there was a concrete understanding of his situations and feelings.

The movie is not without faults (too long, denouement could have been cut almost entirely, some of the more artistic elements do not always work), but the sum of all its parts is worth more than the individual characteristics.

The credit for that mostly goes to Mr. Spike Lee. I cannot imagine any other man bringing this film to the table. This is Spike Lee two or three years after Do the Right Thing, where controversy was coming out of his fingernails.

He was a fired up individual, which makes for a good mentality to direct something like Malcolm X. The scope of this project was epic and completion of it needed the juice that only Lee possessed. So I left Malcolm X feeling both enlightened and like I had experienced something, as if I had just come back from a very long trip.

Patience is required, but Spike Lee's passion is visible in every scene. That -his passion- is the best aspect of Malcolm X, and it is one that you have to admire.