Starring: Angela Bassett, O.L. Duke, Al Freeman Jr., Sonny Jim Gaines, Albert Hall Average Rating: Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: VHS Tape Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, HiFi Sound, NTSC Label: Warner Home Video Number of Items: 2 Release Date: February 16, 1994 Running Time: 201 minutes Theatrical Release Date: November 18, 1992
Description: Filmmaker Spike Lee, star Denzel Washington (the New York, Boston and Chicago Film Critics' choice as 1992's Best Actor) and other talents vividly portray the life and times of the visionary leader. "One of the decade's best and most important films." (Arch Campbell, WRC-TV/Washington D.C.)
Amazon.com essential video: Just as Do the Right Thing was the capstone of Spike Lee's earlier career, Malcolm X marked the next milestone in the filmmaker's artistic maturity. It seemed everything Lee had done up to that point was to prepare him for this epic biography of America's fiery civil-rights leader, who is superbly played by Oscar-nominated Denzel Washington, from his early days as a zoot-suited hustler known as "Detroit Red" to his spiritual maturity after his pilgrimage to Mecca, as a Black Muslim by the name of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz. Do the Right Thing climaxed with the photographic images of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King engulfed by flames of rage; Malcolm X explores the genesis and evolution of that rage over Malcolm's lifetime, and how these two great figures--held up to the public as polar-opposites within the African American human rights movement (King for nonviolent civil disobedience, Malcolm for achieving equality "by any means necessary")--were each essential to the agenda of the other. Lee careens from the hedonistic ebullience of Malcolm's early days to the stark despair of prison, from his life-changing conversion to Islam to his emergence as a dynamic political leader--all with an epic sweep and vitality that illuminates personal details as well as political ideology. Angela Bassett is also terrific as Malcolm's wife, Betty Shabazz. --Jim Emerson
Man of Vision Struck Down 20th Century I was not an avid follower of this man, but some of his ideals should have been scrutinized for a better community amongst the people mainly African Americans.
He was a man of integrity especially with family life. His followers were not as strong minded as he just as those in MLK's time. Those supposed followers reacted to certain aspects of their ideas I believe, just to announce that they were a part of a group with some power.
The followers did not fully understand their leader who was for the equality of Human Race.
Buy this movie This is a very good biography of Malcolm X that follows his Autobiography with some exceptions. Denzel is the man.
very good Malcom x movie Its the best movie I have ever watched. very clear and easy to shift through.will encourage any potential buyer to go for it.
Flawed masterpiece I am a huge fan of the book, but the movie has so many flaws that it left me hungry for a better film. The good: The acting by Denzel Washington is great. He brings life to a man that most of us knew only as an angry man. His smile and spirit (and almost dead on physical similarity to Malcolm) brought so much to humanize him. Spike Lee couldn't have cast the main role any better and he was responsible for writing a great likable living Malcolm. It was also nice to see Ernest Thomas aka Roger from the TV show "What's Happening" ('hey hey hey Raj!"). The bad is that several of the other actors were not nearly as good. Al Freeman Jr. was terrible as Elijah Muhammad and it bordered on comical how clunky. Nothing was clunkier than the music that was chosen for the movie. It really pulled you out of the scene, especially the music during the Mecca visit. It sounds like a song from a 1970s bad documentary. The scene with Malcolm and his wife discussing their personal lives was destroyed by the terrible music.
One highlight was Lee's choice to use Ozzie Davis' voice for the eulogy. Since he wrote and delivered it at the actual funeral, it was a brilliant move to have it recreated by him for the film.
I am not a huge fan of Spike Lee's work, but this movie is epic and he did an amazing job of condensing a great book. The life of Malcolm X was perfect for a movie. It really is a life in 3 acts, and the third act has the rewards of his life before, but also the penalty of his previous life, which he can't escape. Sadly there were parts that were missing including the debt he owed his Aunt. She was pivotal in the book, and even one scene with her would have helped explain where he got the money to go to Mecca.
The picture of the DVD is great, but the sound is just average with some of the dialog mixed very low. The 2 disk set has a great deal of extras that make it worth it. The deleted scenes were wisely left out of the original movie. Nice to see them (love DVDs for this!) but Lee was very smart to not include most of them. The hunger scene was great, but didn't fit in the movie. I do wished he would have included the scene about the white girl who wanted to help, but was not given the opportunity. Lee filmed a follow up scene that redeemed Malcolm, but for some reason didn't include it. The omission of this one scene left me frustrated because it really showed how his humanity had changed after his trip to Mecca. He finally embraced a new self and Denzel played it so well. Luckily it is one of the deleted scenes so enjoy it.
Overall, I wish he had spent another 20 dollars on the soundtrack. He might have gotten something that wasn't so distracting and it would have made the movie much stronger. The music fights the moods so many times it really reminds you that you are watching a movie. Much of it sounds like temp music that he just slapped in there regardless of how it affected the emotion of the scene.
Read The Book!!! I love Malcolm, I love Spike, I love Denzel...I grew up on the street Malcolm was born on, in North Omaha, Pinkney Street, BUT...the movie is lacking...Read The Book!!! It is a revelation.
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