Malcolm X

1992 "Scholar, convict, leader, disciple, hipster, father, hustler, minister, black man, every man."
7.7| 3h22m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 18 November 1992 Released
Producted By: JVC
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/malcolm-x
Info

A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.

Genre

Drama, Action, History

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Malcolm X (1992) is now streaming with subscription on Paramount+

Director

Spike Lee

Production Companies

JVC

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Malcolm X Audience Reviews

GamerTab That was an excellent one.
AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Menander-Soter-Basileus 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.
SlyGuy21 You see what I did there? Huh? Huh? Nevermind. All jokes aside though, the last 2/3 of the movie saves this from utter boredom. One complaint I have right off the bat is that the movie feels too long. And I don't mind long movies, my favorite movie is three hours long and I've seen the redux of "Apocalypse Now" twice. But unlike those movies, the first hour of "Malcolm X" is so slow it might as well be playing in reverse. I know it's there to show how he changes throughout the film, but I have an idea for you Mr. Lee. Start the movie with Malcolm getting arrested, then when he's in jail, have the first hour of this movie condensed to quick flashbacks with time-stamps. You'd get the story started at a higher pace, and then have time to explain the rest in short segments during Malcolm's incarceration. Make them each 10 minutes and boom, you're movie is now fifty minutes shorter and not on the verge of boring me to sleep. Do you know what the most boring movie I've seen is? "American Hustle". "American Hustle" was so boring to me, I thought I'd fallen asleep twice while watching it, and it was shorter than "Malcolm X". After the first hour, I thought I'd have another borefest to sit through. However, what good would my opinion be if I didn't finish the movie? So I decided to power through it, thankfully the rest of the film is more interesting.First, there's Denzel Washington who, despite his performance, did not win the Oscar for Best Actor in 1993, it instead went to Al Pacino for "Scent of a Woman". Now, I haven't seen "Scent of a Woman" in years, but I remember Al Pacino in that movie, and Denzel could not have come closer to winning that award instead of him. I'm not gonna say he was snubbed or anything, because at least he was nominated. I'd rather be nominated for an amazing performance and not win, then not get nominated at all. But I digress, if nothing else watch the movie for Denzel, he gives an astounding performance.The plot definitely picks up when Malcolm gets incarcerated. It shows him transform from a criminal, to a respected political and religious leader, and then finally, a wanted man. A man that's being hunted by people he at one point called "his brothers". This is where the drama kicks off, this is where the action kicks off, but more importantly this is where the story takes off. I don't know how realistic the portrayal of Malcolm X is in this, but the drama, character, and story are there. If this movie was just forty or fifty minutes shorter, I'd probably want to see it again. I may not want to see it again, but Denzel is phenomenal, if anything watch the last 2/3 of the movie (you won't miss the first hour at all).
thornton-clin The film Malcolm X is extremely well done and a must see movie for any American citizen. Spike Lee does a spectacular job directing this film; he uses amazing lighting techniques throughout the film, Lee first uses a high-key glow behind the white woman that Malcolm notices when he is on a date with his black girlfriend. This high-key glow behind Sophia makes her look angelic and almost like a trophy, Lee uses this type of lighting on Sophia to make the viewer feel just as intrigued by Sophia as Malcolm does. Lee then uses a foggy filter with extremely dim lighting during most of Malcolm's life as a hustler. Lee uses this powerful technique to emphasize how cloudy Malcolm's judgment was at that point in his life. When Malcolm is sentenced to prison the lighting changes almost drastically, Lee shows Malcolm sitting in a cell with absolutely no light this technique allows the viewer to feel just as lost as Malcolm. Lee then uses high-key lighting to shine on Malcolm when the door is opened. The high-key lighting in this scene is used as a turning point in Malcolm's life and a symbol of Elijah Muhammad. Elijah Muhammad was first introduced to Malcolm in the shower where sound played in unison with the lighting. Lee uses diegetic sound in this scene, you hear the sound of the shower water slamming against the ground, and the ground is acting as a resistance to the flow of the water just as Malcolm is acting as a resistance to the nation of Islam. Once again Lee did an amazing job on this film and every American should take a few hours out of their life to watch it, because it gives us a better grasp and realization on the truth of our nation's history.
Jack Stannard Spike Lee does a good job with this film. He uses different techniques to show different moods in the film such as the use of different colors. In the opening scene when Spike Lee is walking down the street and into the barber show the viewer can see a variety of bright, vibrant colors by making the sky bright, his clothing vivid and gives a soft focus to the lens. He does this to show the good times and the happy feelings that are going on in Boston without actually saying it. Also during the movie he uses different camera filters to film the same action by using black and white, like a TV would show. He does this to give whats going on a more real feel to the event in the movie to make it seem like it is more an actual event rather than just a film. However, my only concerns are that he hardly gives an exposition of his earlier life. Yes, he does touch on Malcolm's childhood but he doesn't really explain how his dad died or what he did during his teen years as a hustler. I understand that this movie is very long as it is however that period in his life had a large impact on his life going forward and what he believed in when he was an adult. This film mostly focuses on his life as an adult and an active member of the Nation of Islam. Other than skipping the first part of the book for the most part, he does a fine job at getting most of the details in the latter half of his life.