Malcolm X (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Powerful...
Review: ...is the best way to describe Malcolm X, Denzel Washinton's greatest work in cinema so far. It tells the story of Malcolm X, the strong-willed black revolution leader whose ironic and powerful views differed very differently from Martin Luther Jr.
Denzel Washington gives an extraordinary performance, and with heart he shows the metamorphosis of Malcolm X, from hip young kid, to his life of crime days, to when he was a white-hating civil rights leader.
There are many other great performances in the film, and Spike Lee makes Malcolm X his best "joint" ever. You can feel that this is a Spike lee film, because it is a little strange and it swings from one mood to another. Spike lee also stars in the film, but as a minor character.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching Malcolm X, and it ranks as one of the best film of the '90s. If you love Denzel Washington, you haven't seen him perform until you have seen him in Malcolm X.

Rating:
Summary: lOVE HIM OR hATE hIM
Review: As a black man, I do not agree with most of Malcom's militant views...its was reverse racism in many ways....but you cannot help but appreciate his place in american history...and this movie is undeniably a superb example of a film biopic...Weather you love or hate Macolm you cannot deny this movie as being a masterpiece.....and to the person who said muslims hate white people...Malcom was first a part of the Nation of Islam....which is not exactly the same Islam as it is practived in its home the middle east....Islamic followers or Muslims are not terrorists and the religion it self is not one of vilence and murderes that hate white people...did you even see the film???....when Macolm went to Mecca to see how Islam was meant to be practiced he converted and began to change his views of white people....This in turn leaded to his assasination... he also discoverd that their are plenty of white followers of the Muslim faith...

SO before you bathe in the pool of ignorance...pick up a book and read about the religion and its teachings...its not a religion that discrimiinates nor does it tell people to go blow up buildings...they follow the 10 commandments just as Jews and chrsitians do...it teaches peace and love.

So please dont take the views of a handful of idiots who "murder in the name of Allah"...which is a complete twisting of the words of the Q'ran as a representation of what the Islamic faith is about...Those people are just crazy and use religion as an excuse, and belive me they are wrong in the eyes of true muslims....

and by the way Iam a christian...but i also have sense enough to respect others beliefs and not blame 9/11 on an entire faith rather than a few crazy idividuals with no cause....I mean look at the KU KLUXX KLAN...they hate ALL non-whites all in the name of christianity and murder in the name of Christ...does that mean all christians are terrorist who hate all non-white...NO..the KKK is a group not similar to the fools who blew up the towers..so single them out not all followers of the religion..

so i say to you...please read, educate yourself before you speak on the matter at hand...



Rating:
Summary: What?
Review: Dear Abe aka "Starman",

I just read your review and have one question. WHO is a hate monger?!!!

P.S. I thought the movie was excellent!

Rating:
Summary: Awesome man, excellent tribute
Review: Denzel Washington makes this little understood nearly mythical man breath. After studying the life of Malcolm X in a sociology of religion class, we watched this film to relax a bit. The script seems fairly accurate to history, and the imagery helps bring the conflict, drive and sincerity of Malcolm X to life.
In the movie, it becomes so obvious that Malcolm had just reached a kind of Buddhist nirvanna in his Islamic faith. Had he been allowed to live, his newly found spiritual insight gained from his pilgrimage to Mecca most likely would have helped to enlighten other Americans, Muslim or Christian, white or black. Malcolm appears on the verge of something even greater than he had previously been. Malcolm appears to be on the verge of becoming a national and perhaps even global spiritual and secular leader at the time of his death. Denzel makes more mourn the death of a man I never met. Inspiring, insightful. I'm grateful to Denzel and Spike for bringing me this "joint."

Rating:
Summary: Oscar-worthy performance by Denzel Washington
Review: I admit that I never thought much of Denzel Washington until I saw him in "Training Day". In that movie, I was very impressed with his ability to play a very confident, smart, and super-cool character. He deserved that Oscar. Now, watching "Malcom X", a movie made by Spike Lee in 1992, I realize that he has always been that kind of actor. His portrayal of Malcolm is full of power and subtlety. I've never had that much interest in Spike Lee's films, but I have to say that this one is very well done, and very interesting, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum.

Rating:
Summary: Why?
Review: I bought this title over again as I had already owned the original disc. I also owned a Superbit "Lawrence or Arabia," but quickly sold it due to the fact that it was spread out over two discs. Malcolm X (2005) for some reason is spread out over two discs! Why? I thought that since this was a two-disc set, it would have meant that bonus materials were on one disc and the film on the other. Noooo, they put bonus materials on one disc and some on the other! This spreading a film over two disc is one of the reasons I did not like the laserdisc.

The film itself was remastered, although the original disc was excellent in picture quality for an earlier DVD disc. The remsatering is similar to the Star Wars DVD. You can see the weaves of clothing material type of detail. You can now see film grain, if you like that!

The best addition was the 1972 documentary of the real Malcolm X. You get to see extended views of certain sittuations and his murder along with public reaction on the scene! That alone is the main reason I bought the new one. You also get to see his casket for extended periods. I just wonder why I have not seen footage of the actual assasination since you have the before and after.

If this thing was not split over two discs, I would have given it a five.



Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I love everything about this film. It is well written, well directed and the performance by Denzel Washington is the best, in my opinion, of his career. I first saw this movie in high school while it was playing at the theater. Our class deemed it so important and fundamental that we chose to go to the theater and see this movie and make a class trip out of it. Admittedly, I had never really known anything about Malcolm X until this movie was made, and it propelled me to read and purchase his autobiography, which is the perfect supplement to this movie.

Surely, this movie should have been nominated for an academy award for best picture and Denzel Washington should have won for best actor for this movie--not Training Day, which is not a good movie.

Rating:
Summary: Malcolm X lives!
Review: In my opinion - and I know many may disagree - 'Malcolm X' depicts the best acting Denzel Washington has ever given in any movie. Starring as the late Afro-American leader, Denzel almost perfectly embodies the early thuggish ways of Malcolm Little during his life of crime, and his born-again, revolution-poised personality that grew out of his embracing Islam and reading while in prison. Scenes such as the 'Plymouth Rock landed on us' and the 'American right-wing' speeches, the 'chicken comin' home to roost' press conference after Kennedy's assassination, and the pilgrimage to Mecca shows how well Denzel played his part.
In general, the movie features an excellent cast of characters, such as Spike Lee (director) as shorty, Malcolm's partner in crime, Angela Basset (superb acting, by the way) as Betty Shabbaz, Malcolm's wife, and Al Freeman, who does a terrific job emulating the clipped, choppy speech of the real Elijah Muhammed.

There were, however, some factual holes in the movie that either Spike Lee weeded out for ethical reasons or were a bit distorted for the sake of sticking to Hollywood-thriller standards. For example, the character of brother Baines (Albert Hall), who first introduces Malcolm to Islam and later turns against him, is ficticious. However, the person most closely associated with Baines in real life would be reverend Louis Farrakkan, who had been a rival to Malcolm X and nowadays leads the Nation of Islam. So to allude directly to Farrakkan would be somehow indicting or at least especulating as to identify the person behind Malcolm's demise. For this one I can understand why Lee chose a more subtle approach.
Another example is Malcolm's upbringing to radical, Black nationalist politics. Lee's sort of gives a hint to Malcolm's influences from Marcus Garvey, only after the movie makes a short mention of it when Malcolm recalls his childhood and narrates passages of his father's preachings and defiance of the Ku Klux Klan. However, Lee does not focus on other literature and people, besides the Koran and Elijah Muhammed, from where Malcolm drew most of his political beliefs.

But that aside, the movie is good enough to educate the audience about the life of this great revolutionary. The plot is very well-crafted, the acting is outstanding, and the short narrative with real takes of Malcolm X that ends with Nelson Mandela's reflection at a elementary school classroom is just terrific for a golden finale.

I recommend this movie to get you started on Malcolm X and his ideas, but after you see it, get the autobiography, his definite, ever-lasting legacy as told by the man himself.




Rating:
Summary: The Celluloid Malcolm
Review: In spite of the scant attention that Hollywood has paid to Spike Lee's "Malcolm X," there can be no denying that it was one of the decade's best films, right up there with "Sense and Sensibility" and "Saving Private Ryan." The cast is marvelous, the writing is superb, the music is intoxicating and the cinematography is downright unbelievable. Without a doubt, this is Spike Lee's greatest film, and one for which he truly deserved more acclaim than he ever recieved. But Hollywood is a place where you have to get in line if you want to succeed, and Spike's buck-the-system political outlook has always made things difficult for him in Tinseltown. There is something about Lee's public persona that makes whites uneasy, and no place is whiter than the Hollywood backlot.

But back to Malcolm X. If this is Lee's best film, its also Denzel Washington's. Sure, he made us wince in "Training Day," but the challenge here is a much greater one. Here, Denzel has to portray a well-known figure who has mostly been reduced to a stereotype. His job is to break through that stereotype, while still providing us with a realistic look at Malcolm the man. I would say that Denzel pulls that off remarkably well.

In part, he's able to do that because of the writing. Certainly, some of the autobiography has been compressed for dramatic purposes, but the spirit of the work dominates the film. In spite of all the quibbling and hair-splitting one could do over the minor details, the fact remains that the movie is highly faithful to Malcolm's life and work. Perhaps the biggest revision is the character of Baines, wonderfully portrayed by Albert Hall. Baines is an amalgamation of several characters in the autobiography, including Malcolm's brother Reginald, and without him the film would fall apart. This is clearly one of those instances where the writers do an excellent job of changing the facts in order to tell the truth.

Denzel and Hall aren't the only ones who turn out excellent performances. For many audiences, this was their first glimpse of Angela Basset, the dark-skinned beauty who plays Betty Shabazz, as well as Delroy Lindo, who has made a career out of playing unsavory characters. His portrayal of West Indian Archie is as intimidating as it is engrossing. He clearly comes across as someone you would not want to cross paths with.

As for the DVD itself , one wishes there were more features, such as a director's commentary or perhaps a documentary on the making of the film. I imagine that the movie will eventually be digitally remastered, with 16-bit image processing, THX sound and all of that, but there is no telling when that will happen. Perhaps when it does, Spike Lee and Denzel Washington will be kind enough to sit down and cut a commentary track. In the meantime we'll just have to make do with what we've got. But with a film as good as this one, there's little room for complaint.

Rating:
Summary: Malcolm X: May God accept him in paradise
Review: Malcolm Little, a.k.a. Red, was not a man I would have wanted to be seen hanging around with. I wouldn't even have wanted to cross paths with him. But what happened to him later on in his life and the change that he underwent is one of the most influential and inspiring true stories that have ever touched my heart. When Malcolm accepted Islam, even though he entered this great religion from a wrong and very misleading angle, it was the beginning of a legendary figure's emergence into the American conscience and a beacon for all that stood up to the oppression and injustice that America was doing to its own people. This legendary person's name was Malcolm X, or Hajj Malek Shabbaz, may God bless him.

Spike Lee, the director of Do The Right Thing, brings Malcolm X to the big screen with Denzel Washington portraying the late Black leader. The movie takes you through Malcolm's turbulent childhood, his upbringing into a young con man, drug abuser, and gang leader. It was his 6 or so years spent in jail where Malcolm was introduced to the rising Nation of Islam lead by Elijah Muhammed from one of his inmates. Malcolm educated himself in jail and turned out to be what many never expected; an outspoken, strong and very intelligent spokesperson for the Nation and the struggles of the black community across America. The movie successfully reveals the inner conflicts between Malcolm and the Nation, and the result of Malcolm breaking away to become an independant activist. The film also does Malcolm's story justice by showing his pilgrimage to Mecca - pilgrimage is known as Hajj in Arabic and is considered the fifth and final pillar of Islam. It was this special visit to Mecca where Malcolm was exposed to mainstream Islam - the true picture of Islam unlike the misleading teachings of Elijah Muhammed and the Nation of Islam. The movie ends with the disturbing assassination of Malcolm and a piece narrated by Ossie Davis featuring pictures of the real Malcolm X and a scene with Nelson Mandela giving his thoughts on Malcolm.

The movie is based on the bestselling book 'Autobiography of Malcolm X' by Malcolm X himself as told to Alex Haley.

I do recommend reading this book to get a wider picture of Malcolm's life and realization of mainstream Islam.

One of the best movies I have seen.

A