Film biographies are a tricky thing, they aren't my favorite genre, mostly because there are so few of them that actually get them right. Spike Lee's "Malcolm X" is a film that gets it right as it is a portrait of not just a great man, but one who was complex, who was constantly evolving.
"Malcolm X" the film is pretty much the only piece of information I have familiarized myself so far with the historic civil rights figure. Before the movie had come out, I had no idea who Malcolm X was, I was twelve years old, I knew of Martin Luther King, but not Malcolm X. That probably had something to do with the fact that Malcolm X himself was a controversial figure. Martin Luther King represented peace, love, and understanding, his views were easier to take in. With King, it was easier to understand what he stood for, but Malcolm X's view was always more controversial.
The film of the Malcolm X's life is a long magnificently epic one. It begins with Malcolm (Denzel Washington) as a street hustler and sometimes gangster. In the early days, he's known as Red, a loser who seems to be going nowhere fast. He gets involved with a big name gangster (Delroy Lindo), and is later involved with a robbery in which he is thrown in prison for. While in prison he meets a fellow inmate named Baines (Albert Hall), a Muslim who shows Malcolm the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm becomes a reformed man and when he is released from prison he becomes a loyal follower of Muhammad (Al Freeman Jr.)and begins making speeches about the black Muslim movement.
When Malcolm realizes Elijah Muhammad is a phony prophet, he makes a pilgrimage to Mecca, and changes his philosophy to a more peaceful and harmonious understanding towards all races. At the height of his new found stance on racism in America he is tragically gunned down.
What I like about Malcolm X is you aren't fully taken in by this great man from beginning, I think part of what made Malcolm X so great is he was able to recognize his faults, also he was courageous enough to change his mind about things. What made him so controversial in the beginning was his stance on a segregated nation between blacks and whites, this was the same time Martin Luther King was speaking out against segregation. It was only later Malcolm X came to new ideology of brotherhood, it happens with his spiritual journey in Mecca where he sees people practicing the Muslim faith, and he comes back from that speaking of brotherhood between all races.
The film itself is perhaps Spike Lee's tour de force. It was only two years after he made his signature film "Do the Right Thing", Lee made this film. Many directors were attached to make the story of Malcolm X, including Norman Jewison who was white and made a civil rights film with "In the Heat of the Night". Spike Lee thought the story of Malcolm X could only be given justice by a black director. Here I think he is right, Malcolm X was a black leader, he gave African Americans an identity, something that wasn't lost in Spike Lee. Lee was the perfect man to direct this film as I sometimes think his films are just as misunderstood as Malcolm X's teachings, he must've felt a certain kinship to the material.
Lee doesn't skimp on the production design of the film either, the first hour depicting Malcolm's early criminal life has a pumped up jazzy feel with stylish cinematography and colorful costumes depicting the period, it's as if Lee is giving us an old fashioned gangster picture. The shift changes to a more realistic setting in the streets of Harlem and behind the prison cell, it's almost like it's a different movie.
The heart of this film and what transcends it into greatness is the performance of Denzel Washington who has never been better, I believe it's one of the best performances of the past thirty years. It's because Washington is our guide through the transformation of this life that makes this work. We see him go from hood to martyr effortlessly, he shows charm, clarity, and confidence. Washington is willing to show us the dark side of this man even going so far to make him unlikable, but it is with this, he is able to show the kind of great man Malcolm becomes.
There is great complexity in this film much like the man, like with "Do the Right Thing", nothing is quite as black and white, Lee doesn't get much credit in showing real human beings in his films. What Lee achieves with "Malcolm X" is something that could've been deemed as hero worship into something much more substantial. He doesn't take the easy road, he sees the irony of a man who is gunned down by his own race, a man who once was taught that only white men were evil, and who himself opposed black violence. The assassination scene is one of Lee's most powerful shot scenes, as the aftermath shows everything that Malcolm stood against.
To look at "Malcolm X" is to see inside the life of a great man, and it takes a wise man to show that you don't start out great, it takes a long time to come and find out your identity. Malcolm X was a man who was constantly evolving, who knows what he might've become had he been able to live longer.
