Malcolm X

Rating:
Summary: A must see film
Review: One of the most brilliant films ever made. Another reviewer, E. Hazell is correct, if maybe even understated in comparing this film with von Sydow's portrayal of Jesus in "The Greatest Story Ever Told" and B. Kingsley in "Ghandi". Without question, the portrayal by Denzel Washington of Malcolm X belongs with these two classic efforts.

The screenplay closely follows Alex Haley's collaboration with Malcolm X on his autobiography, from his early days as a hustler and pimp, to his transformation and his rise to prominence in the Black Muslims and beyond. In so doing, it traces much of the history of the twentieth century African American experience

As another reviewer so inelegantly (and ungrammatically) put it, Malcolm Little sold drugs and women, robbed and lived in the underworld. However, this recognizes far less than half of this compelling and incredible story. This beginning was important only to underscore how far he ultimately came, and leads the viewer to wonder what would have happened had he not been murdered.

Wonderful casting including Angela Bassett as his wife Betty, DelRoy Lindo and particularly Al Freeman Jr. as Elijah Muhammad. It was a rather predictable crime that Spike Lee, Denzel Washington and this film did not dominate the Academy Awards.

Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: The movie was decent. Outstanding performances by Denzel and Angela make the film, however, I found the book to be more informative.

Rating:
Summary: Fine biopic is hurt by awful coda
Review: When I watched Spike Lee's "Malcolm X" on TV, it was a pleasurable surprise. Despite the film's three-hour-plus length, it was never boring and it managed to keep me interested until the last five minutes or so.

It tells the story of Malcolm X and shows the enormous changes he went through in his remarkable life. Though the film often fails to take a really intimate look at Malcolm X, Denzel Washington's superlative performance successfully counters this weakness. He keeps us interested in this man, despite the fact, that Lee's film, though it is exquisitely filmed, lacks the courage to explorethe person Malcolm X. The film rather deals with the historical figure of Malcolm and the key events of his life. This makes his picture sometimes seem more dutiful than dramatic. Still, "Malcolm X" is one of the best biopics, not only because of Denzel Washington and the other very good actors. I also liked the cinematography by Ernest Dickerson, the music and the production design which added to the authentic mood of the movie.

If Lee had ended his movie five minutes earlier, I would have given it four stars, but unfortunately, he made the disastrous decision to add a closing coda that one can only call embarrasing. It's nothing else but clumsy propaganda and nowhere near the subtlety that the rest of the film displayed. It even features Nelson Mandela who seems to feel uncomfortable in front of a film camera. Maybe Lee was afraid of the subtlety of his picture and feared that someone couldn't get the message. I know that this is just speculation. Whatever his motives were, he didn't do his film a favour.

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: BEST MOVIE EVER
Review: Movies are never good as the book, but its good to see a visual. One thing I didn't like about the movie is the way they protrayed Elijah Mahammad.
This movie changed my life, for someone like me in High School that didn't like to read. lol It was becasue of this movie I joined the Nation Of Islam when I was 18. I figured I would go to the source, Malcom X just repeated what Elijah said, and look how great he became. Malocom X was so great, but always thought he would come back to the N.O.I....Give thanks to Malcom X our living Ancestor...

Rating:
Summary: Why No Oscar?
Review: To this day, "Malcolm X" is one of my all time favorite films. It is a shame that some of the greatest performances are ignored while equal or lesser performances are praised. For example, Denzel Washington won for "Glory" (a great film) but lost with "Malcolm X" and Laurence Fishburne lost with "Othello" and won for "Whats Love Got to do With It" (an inferior film). And all this while there are screams of discrimination in Hollywood. Denzel wins for a powerful slave role, but not for a controversial figure. Laurence wins for an abusive husband, but not for an awsome portrayal of a Shakespeare character in an inter-ethnic relationship.

Not only is "Malcolm X" one of Washington's greatest performances, it is Spike Lee's greatest achievement so far and I own all of his films. It is a daring, insightful, and moving experience. Brother Malcolm's entire experience can be an inspiration to us all, regardless of our background. I feel it is an important film for all to see.

Rating:
Summary: One Of The Greatest Historical Dramas Of Our Time.
Review: Spike Lee's "Malcolm X" is a riveting masterpiece that's thrilling and emotionally moving and powerful. Lee does a great job capturing Malcolm X as does Denzel Washington in his best performance ever. This is a film that lets us know the character and his times. I also loved the structure of the screenplay and film itself. The first half is noirish with the gangster feel of "Scarface," the second is a riveting historical document like Oliver Stone's "JFK." "Malcolm X" should be shown in schools around America as an educational tool about a man and his era. Malcolm X embodied the struggle of the African-American in America. This is powerful filmmaking at it's best. "Malcolm X" is brutal, powerful, hard-hitting and full of great performances. Not even Lee's recent Summer release, "Summer Of Sam," reaches the level of power and intensity of "Malcolm X." This is one of the greatest films of the decade, a true gem.

Rating:
Summary: M/X on DVD
Review: While the movie itself is excellent, this is one of those DVDs that makes a great film even greater.

Much has been said about the 1992 film, so I'll concentrate on the extras. First of all, the widescreen is not so wide that it makes you squint to see it. It's at a good porportion. But the edited scenes are really interesting. We see previously unseen footage of Denzel as Malcolm courting Angela Bassett as Betty Shabazz (in a rather touching way). We see Denzel/Malcolm putting an initiate through the rigors in an amusing fashion, we see him studying and feeding his hunger for books while in jail, and we see some interesting scenes of Denzel/Malcolm making anti-racist and pro-brotherhood statements near the end of his life to a young white girl and an Arab he meets in Mecca. A lot of people who miss the point about Malcolm's transformation should see those scenes (which actually appear in the original book).

(Slight complaint, the stuff about the Sphinx's black nose being shot off by Napoleon is a bunch of BS that didn't happen, even Molefi Asante admitted this on 60 minutes a few years ago. So it's just as well that that scene was not included in the original film).

Also, "Baines" was actually John Bembry, aka Bimbi, who encouraged Malcolm to read in prison. It was actually Malcolm's real life brothers who really introduced him to the Nation of Islam teachings. Not a complaint, just a clarification.

There is also an excellent documentary about the making of this film. A real Horatio Alger type story of how Spike beat the odds through dogged determination to raise the money to make the film the way he felt it needed to be made. It was sad to realize that the film was not as popular as hoped among young people upon it's intitial release and the "Malcolmania" of the early 90s turned out to be a fad, but at least this DVD will give people the opportunity to learn from Malcolm's story.

Then there is the uncut 1972 documentary "Malcolm X. The raw, uncut REAL Malcolm talking strong and taking numbers! This is a brilliantly edited collection of chronological clips of Macolm, Elijham Muhammad, the young Louis Farrakhan, and all the other major players into an excellent biography without additional narration. It lets the viewer decide in an excellet fashion.

So see the 1992 movie, then the "making of" documentary, then the deleted scenes, and THEN the 1972 documentary and you'll get the next best thing to reading all there is to know about Malcolm X thought. Enjoy it, I did. College and high school teachers will REALLY want this for their history classes.

Rating:
Summary: Spike you have really dropped the ball and let us down
Review: Malcolm X is one of my favorite movies ever, a classic film that puts all of Spike's and Ernest's talents into one enjoyable, visually and stylistically spectacular piece.

and then they completely crap on all of it with this disc.

THE GREATST FLAW (and fatal flaw) of this disc is to have the film broken up into TWO PARTS! on TWO DIFFERENT DISCS! WHAT IN THE BLUE HELL IS GOING ON?!?!?!?!

this is simply inexcusable. if i wanted to change discs, i would be watching a laser disc. in 1985.

i can't possibly imagine how this made it past discussion and into production. the movie just comes to an abrubt halt, and then asks for disc 2.

yet you have two documentaries and other extras, also split between the discs. has the universe gone retarded, or why did they not put the film on one disc, and the extras on the second?!?! unbelievable, and SO disappointing.

the second complaint would be the inclusion of the clothing stylist on the commentary track. she just LOVES to interrupt classic scenes with comments on how she chose a pair of socks for a third level character. rambling on and on. good grief. she did a great job on production design, granted, but i want to hear from Spike and Ernest, the cinematographer. i want to hear about the scenes themselves, about the classic "Spike" touch and technique, and after years of waiting for a commentary track, classic scenes don't have Spike's comments, but some completely irrelevant comments about an antique store that had this lamp, it was a charming store, they had lots of nice items, blah blah blah. ruined.

i can only hope Spike has been kidnapped and replaced by a retarded robot, and that someday he will escape his evil captors and redo this disc as it should be done.

Rating:
Summary: Another Top Notch Performance From Denzel Washington
Review: "Malcolm X" is an undeniably great film released in 1992 starring Denzel Washington ("Training Day") and Angela Bassett ("What's Love Got To Do With It"). This powerful film directed by Spike Lee ("Do the Right Thing") follows the life of the great and controversial civil rights leader Malcolm X. It presents how he became as for he's most famous, his turbulances through childhood and into adulthood, his road to finding peace in the neighborhoods, and his leading to the Muslim religion. The effects of racism in the US project themselves greatly, giving the film a more powerful theme. Meanwhile, the passion and the struggle maintain their standing throughout, keeping audiences' attention through the entire three-hour film.

Though all the actors give great performances, Washington and Bassett's state themselves the strongest. Washington, in his Oscar-nominated performance (Best Actor), portrays Malcolm X beautifully through his emotions and his charisma. As in every film, he proves that he's one of few modern-day actors who has pure talent. Bassett portrays Malcolm X's, wife marvelously. This underrated actress acts out her character's life hardtimes like she's actually living them. Such acting strengths from them give this film the extra powerful theme that it deserves.

Such film quality leads "Malcolm X" to a powerful and unforgettable conclusion. This is sure to please many audiences for years ahead. Though this film presents only three hours of Malcolm X's life, this offers a great perception of his life and his beliefs.