Disclaimer:

The movie being reviewed this week is rated: R

This film covers the life of a controversial Civil Rights Leader, contains harsh violence, and mature themes.

If you’re not ready to have your Whiteness obliterated, come back when you are.

Reader discretion is advised.

“Why didn’t I pick a Dr. King biopic?” you might be asking. Honestly, I still love the messages Dr. King stood for and preached. Although, this Civil Rights Leader is one that I think doesn’t get as much attention and deserves to be studied. For the sake of all races, especially in modern times, it’s important to understand what this man stood for too.

Malcolm X was, and is, a controversial Black Rights activist due to his unconventional and often violent sentiments. During a time when Black people could hardly ever speak their minds, this man came out to disrupt that complacency. Because of this, several White authority figures and civilians alike saw him as a threat to society. Even now, the ideals he expressed are hotly debated and still spark outrage among the White community.

In the film, Denzel Washington gives a career-defining performance as the Civil Rights Leader and it keeps you hooked. For the most part. So far I’ve only seen this film once, and I recall the opening being much slower and downbeat. It helps create contrast once Malcolm finds his voice, but since I’m not familiar with Malcolm, I kept asking myself how accurate this was. Because of that, I plan to look more deeply into this film and Malcolm X’s life.

I’m expecting it to give me a better idea of who he was and how that’s portrayed in the film. Also, I think we all should know more about him in general. Hopefully, by studying this man’s life, we can get a better idea of how we can solve racial injustice today. I might be aiming too high, but I’m certain only good things will come of it. If there are any White people reading as well (don’t worry, I’m White too), that disclaimer wasn’t messing around.

Unless you’re fully prepared to take a look at racial inequality in all aspects, Malcolm X is too much. Part of why we don’t learn about him as much as Dr. King is because of his calculated and precise dissent. He’s not one to mince his words, and he often points the finger directly at White people. To be fair, that’s what should be happening, but not all White people are ready for that. With that said, let’s begin.

Let’s see if we can come out enlightened with an accurate historical portrayal of one of the greatest Civil Rights Leaders in Malcolm X.

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To start off, this movie is very long. It’s an entire 3 hour and 22 minute film and is more of a “biopic epic.” Considering the person this movie is covering, there is a lot to learn about and understand. So, I’m not against the idea of a longer film to fully explore what made him who he was. Although, at what point does it become drawn out and sluggish?

The first 1 hour and 25 (ish) minutes of the film cover Malcolm’s early life. As in, his life before he became “Malcolm X.” This leaves another (roughly) 2 hours to delve into the history of what he’s known for. For a biopic, this is a good starting point. We want to know what made this person who they are, but also see behind-the-scenes aspects of their private life. So, how’s the intro?

It’s complicated.

In fairness, it starts out strong with some provocative images accompanying Malcolm’s trademark fiery orations (stupendously portrayed by Denzel Washington).

This continues for some time, cutting back and forth between shots of the flag and Rodney King footage. Eventually it culminates in this pretty awesome image.

To the film’s credit, almost every scene is ripped directly from Malcolm X’s life. In fact, one thing I didn’t notice was this movie is based on the book The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Which, as you may suspect, was written by the man himself with assistance from author Alex Haley. So, in terms of historical accuracy, it’s about as close as you’re gonna get. One thing that irks me, especially about the first 1 hour and 25 minutes, is the editing.

I know it’s a weird thing to focus on, but it feels like these scenes are jumping around a lot. Take for example this moment after Malcolm gets his hair straightened by his buddy Shorty (played by Spike Lee himself). After they hit the town in their zoot suits, we see this:

That aside, much of the first hour and 25 minutes is like this. There are scenes that allow you to get a feel for the tone, emotions, and personalities of the characters. At the same time, there are way too many distracting moments like this. Not only that, but this flashback to before Malcolm was born is in the first 8 minutes of the film. This is one of those things you should save for the middle as you start to learn more about Malcolm.

By that point we’d have gotten to know him and would be more emotionally invested in his backstory. Although, like I said, this isn’t the only instance of the movie slapping you in the face with a scene. It happens again after the movie is done going over Malcolm’s backstory –

– again after we see what Malcolm’s school life was like –

– when Malcolm escapes from “West Indian” Archie and his gang –

– when Malcolm and Shorty are playing together in the park –

– after this brief moment showing how Malcolm’s father was murdered –

– and this moment of Malcolm being dragged out of solitary just to name a few.

I swear I’m not making this up. These are the actual scenes that follow the previous ones I’ve mentioned. Literally seconds after the first image is shown, the second one pops into existence. Despite being a nearly 3 and a half hour movie, you think they’d take their time. It’s not that they don’t have enough time. But in this first hour and a half, this happens a lot. It feels like they were rushing the story up until the actual Malcolm X stuff.

The first time I watched this, I disliked this first half of the movie. At first it was because I didn’t know enough about Malcolm’s story and wasn’t sure if it was accurate. Now, it’s because we aren’t given enough time to explore these early life moments. What’s on screen is interesting to watch, but the movie doesn’t seem to think so. Even with an hour and a half of early life, it still feels like I don’t know enough about Malcolm.

On the other hand, when it does get to the Malcolm X stuff, it’s genuinely riveting. Not only that, but it becomes glaringly clear how hard Washington worked to get Malcolm X down.

To give you an idea, I’ll post two videos here. One from the movie and one historical recording of Malcolm X. Why not judge for yourself?

Since most of the film hinges on Washington’s performance, it gets especially interesting at this point. I’ll say as well, once we got to this point, I barely had any notes. Everything was well-paced, tonally on-point, and emotionally gripping.

From Malcolm being accepted into the Nation of Islam by Elijah Muhammad –

– to Malcolm arguing with his wife Betty Shabazz (played by Angela Bassett) –

– and, of course, Malcolm’s life-changing pilgrimage to Mecca had me pouring over every millisecond of film.

While it’s not the happiest thing in the film, my favorite moments are those leading up to the assassination. The film knows that we know what happens to Malcolm, and it draws out that moment to the max. After the fire-bombing of Malcolm’s house, we spend the next 20 minutes building up to the assassination. This is where all the emotional connections with Betty, Malcolm’s daughters, and his Muslim Brothers and Sisters are highlighted.

That, and Malcolm shares some of his most human moments during this period. I especially love how he loses his temper only to correct himself and apologize soon after.

And that’s not all. This movie makes this climax as emotionally excruciating as possible. Honestly, every time I’ve seen this movie, while I haven’t cried here, I’ve had a strong urge to. Moments like this definitely help with that.

Then, we all know what comes next:

What I think the movie does well is that it doesn’t end here. It ends soon after, but it gives an appropriate amount of time to honor Malcolm before closing. Including historical footage of Dr. King responding to the assassination and a eulogy that was read at his funeral.

Since this movie was about a real person who made a real impact on history, the film-makers take that seriously.

But, what I’m looking for is: does this movie capture the spirit of Malcolm X? Does it properly represent everything this man stands for? For the most part, I would say yes. But, let’s get into it a bit more.

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The thing about this movie that’s the most commendable (in my opinion) is how it shows all sides of Malcolm. You see him at his highest, his lowest, and everything in between. Sometimes he’s in his own mental prison, other times he’s breaking others out of their prisons. Above all: he was a human. Someone who had virtues and vices like all the rest of us. He was a great leader, but we shouldn’t turn away from both the good and bad sides of him.

History is complicated, and it all comes together in this film. I still wish it had been done in greater detail, though. Like I mentioned before, the Malcolm X parts of Malcolm X were done exceptionally well. Although, some of his early life was glossed over and disjointed. Personally, if you’re going to make a movie like this, get involved in every aspect of his life.

His childhood, upbringing, formative years, and young adulthood are equally as important in shaping who he was. We all carry with us every moment we’ve been through since birth. All of it, whether consciously or unconsciously, informs the decisions we make from day-to-day. That’s also what would help make this movie feel the slightest bit more epic to me.

As is, it is pretty epic. In the sense that it goes into details on a major historical figure that most people wouldn’t have known. The biggest thing for me: rewatchability. Despite being 3 and a half hours, I relished every viewing I had of this film this week (which was about 6). Taking aside the imperfect editing, the details it touches on in the intro are still compelling. Not only that, it made me glad to learn more about Malcolm X as well.

If that’s the case with any biopic, it’s gotta be doing something right.

Not only that, but practically all of the scenes in the film I could trace back to a real-life event. The historical accuracy is very good, but it is shaky in the opening. Since most of it deals with Malcolm’s personal life, exact details wouldn’t have been documented. For that reason, some of those scenes were over-dramatized. I wonder as well if that’s why the film felt the need to jump around so much. Also, I couldn’t find a real-life record of “West Indian” Archie.

I looked online for several historical records of his existence, but couldn’t find anything concrete. The only thing we have is The Autobiography of Malcolm X which does directly reference a man named “West Indian” Archie. However, the internet can’t seem to pinpoint the exact man Malcolm would’ve been referring to.

Besides that, if you’ve got plenty of time and want to honor a controversial yet articulate, intelligent, and well-spoken historical figure on the anniversary of his death (60 years ago today), then Malcolm X is definitely a movie I’d recommend.

It’s kinda tricky for me to rate this movie, but I think I’ll go with a 4.5/5 mosques. I was debating for a while if I should go with a 4 or a 4.5. In the end I decided on a 4.5. I rated The Color Purple a 4 last week. The reason I did that was because I felt the content was good, but something was lost in translation. With Malcolm X, it felt like history came to life, and that’s what pushed it to a 4.5 for me. However, the introduction is still clunky.

(I make no claim of ownership for any of the images or videos used in this post)

(Each of them are owned entirely by their respective copyright holders, which are not me)

(I’m just a humble blogger who talks about movies, I do not make them [Or history for that matter])

(Yet [We should all be afraid if I make history])