Malcolm X

Canadian filmmaker Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night) was originally attached to direct this adaptation of Arthur Hailey’s biography, but when Spike Lee suggested in the media that a Black director should do it, Jewison and his producers took a meeting with the Do the Right Thing sensation and became convinced he was right. Denzel Washington — who had played Malcolm on stage ten years before and who had just made Mo Better Blues with Lee — was the ideal choice for the title role, and paints not only a precise portrait of the charismatic leader familiar from newsreels, but a layered, compassionate, conflicted man who finds the strength in Islam to transcend his demons and confront the inequity and racism in America. Lee insisted on an epic canvas and sought to emulate the scope he admired in the films of David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia; The Bridge on the River Kwai). He even hit up Black celebrities (Oprah, Prince, Michael Jordan) for donations when the budget ran out. His efforts and their faith were more than justified. The film stands as a powerful testament to the man and his times.

One of the great American films not only of the decade but the century… Spike Lee poured everything he had learned about cinema, politics, behavior and culture into one 201-minute Molotov cocktail of epic filmmaking. An eloquent and intimate character study as well as a sweeping portrait of America in the second half of the 20th century.

Jim Hemphill, Indiewire

Spike Lee’s Malcolm X is one of the great screen biographies, celebrating the whole sweep of an American life that began in sorrow and bottomed out on the streets and in prison before its hero reinvented himself. Watching the film, I understood more clearly how we do have the power to change our own lives, how fate doesn’t deal all of the cards. The film is inspirational and educational – and it is also entertaining.

Roger Ebert

Media Partner