Movie Review: Malcolm X

[philosoraptor42]

Malcolm X (1992)

Oddly enough, I came across a clip of this when I was looking up stuff on Youtube related to the Hajj (Islamic Pilgrimage). There's a short part of the film where Denzel Washington narrates the contents of a letter from Malcolm X to his supporters back in America. He lists a number of the major stages of the Hajj pilgrimage and explains his deep sense of brotherhood with all the people who took part with him. The significant part of this experience is that he realises for the first time that white and black men can live in peace and harmony with one another.


Unfortunately, that is the best part of the film. (You can find that particular scene here if you are interested.) Certainly, I'll say this film was interesting, considering the way the ideology of the cult-like "Brotherhood of Islam" which Malcolm joins feeds into the civil rights movement. I'll also accept that the acting is pretty good (though Spike Lee's decision to act in his own movie, albeit in a small role, felt like a mistake). However, it always feels like we're missing some important information.



The film is extra long in an attempt to show the whole length of Malcolm X's story. It also doesn't try to hide more negative elements of his life or to portray him as a saint. Also, I don't think we are expected to agree with his whole ideology either. For example when he argues with a priest that Jesus is not white he is not arguing that Jesus was a middle eastern, Jewish, and to conservative American eyes "coloured", but rather he is literally arguing for a black Jesus. But on the other hand, much of what Malcolm X says still rings true today and flies in the face of rhetoric that racism is now over.



I don't mean to ruin all the surprises, but it definitely surprised me to see that, in the end, it appears that fellow black people who felt he was betraying their organisation are the ones ultimately responsible for Malcolm X's demise rather than right wing whites as you'd expect. That said, there's always a suspicion that something else might be at play. The problem is that parts of the film often aren't just uncertain because of intentional ambiguity. Much of the film feels confusing because the film always seems to be rushing through Malcolm X's life story with a focus on individual revealing details at the expense of a comprehensive and well-balanced storyline.



Angela Bassett is great as ever and quite frankly I wish we'd seen more of her. While the scenes with her point to the more conservative and partriarchal elements of Malcolm X's religious views with her clearly sharing those ideas herself, her performance alongside Denzel Washington is such a treat that it counter-balances it. I really do NOT understand why Angela Bassett isn't in more films. Her performance as Tina Turner in "What's Love Got To Do With It" was incredible.



I understand that biopics are hard to do well and that this was clearly a biopic that needed to be made. However, just because it was necessary to make it doesn't mean I have to like it. There are some great moments in this, but overall it was unsatisfying. I don't think I could imagine anyone doing so well in the role as Denzel Washington did. This looked like it was pointing towards a much better film. But in the end it was just so long and the focus on revealing as much as possible of the life of Malcolm X was at the expense of an engaging narrative arc.

C-