Malcolm X
(1992/Warner Blu-ray)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: B Film: B-
It was
many years in the making and at one point due to his great working relationship
with Denzel Washington, Norman Jewison was set to direct the epic
interpretation of Alex Haley’s must-read Autobiography
Of Malcolm X, in which the writer of the also landmark Roots (books and TV mini-series) related by the controversial
Afro-American (as he preferred it to be said) leader to the writer. It took so long, that Spike Lee had arrived
on the Black New Wave of the late 1990s/early 1990s he helped launch and
eventually became the director of the dramatic Malcolm X feature film in 1992.
Epic,
ambitious and often bold, the film became the first epic within the Hollywood
Studio System to be directed by African American, male or female and Lee was
ready for it. After finding
international recognition with She’s
Gotta Have It (1986), followed by mixed results with School Daze (1988), he suddenly turned around and delivered a trio
of extraordinary films in Do The Right
Thing (1989), the underrated Mo’
Better Blues (1990) and ever-provocative, impressive Jungle Fever (1991). He goes
for broke here and the results are everything from problematic to amazing.
Running
201 minutes, the film traces the man’s journey from frivolous teen to criminal
to religious awakening to political awakening to the ultimate pint of having to
face hate, anger and resistance from all around him including betrayal where he
least expected it to be a barrier-braking individual who changed American
political and racial discourse forever, even though it cost him his life. That result is well portrayed and made clear
by Lee, but not everyone got that most important point at the time and many
still do not.
Lee was
criticized with starting the film with an image of him in the lively prosperous
years of black communities in Harlem (et al) capturing the music and fashion of
the time and though I understand some critics for wishing it had started with
the man of the title, Lee made the proper choice because he was not going to
hide behind anyone or anything as he said what he would say in this film and
his character is with us much of the early part of the film. For what he attempts here, it shows his gust
and the conviction of his filmmaking at its best.
Of
course, Washington
is brilliant and flawless in not just playing X, but becoming him and without flaw in every stage of his life. This also means he has to be the man in all
different states of age, consciousness, choices, growth, joy and finally, with
the specter of death looming as he is ultimately alone existentially (even with
a family he loves and a wife who he loves as much as she loves him) because he
literally has gone where no individual black male had ever gone before because
of his convictions of ideas and especially of character.
As Lee is
portraying this, the early moments are like a Hollywood Musical the studios
forgot to make, that Malcolm (in what may be considered luck in some respect)
grew up at a time where a healthy enough black community with prosperity and
its own groundbreaking, innovative culture existed. While this is going on, Lee sets up the
dramatic side and both visually and thematically, the film is set up to be the
anti-Birth Of A Nation (1915,
reviewed elsewhere on this site) attacking stereotypes of Black Americans
automatically scared just because the Klu Klux Klan (glorified by their own
clothes and activities as well as by film itself, which Lee attacks head on)
show up and terrorize them. It is a
scene set up in 1915 and repeated in thousands of Hollywood
dramas, but Lee turns it on its head and he is just getting started.
It might
be oversimplifying to say that he wants this film to be Birth Of A Black Nation, but like Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate (1980), has its own look at an America
promised but never delivered on and never intended to, with genocidal results
the complete opposite of what endless myths promised. Co-written by Arnold Perl and Lee, it does
not tone down or shy away from the Black Separatist/Black Supremacist language
X became legendary for, yet it also shows how this changes and evolves as he is
betrayed by the Nation of Islam and leader Elijah Muhammad (a dead on portrayal
by Al Freeman, Jr.) all while he is already being spied on 24/7 by the U.S.
Government that sees him as a threat, not helping himself with comments on
Vietnam or the JFK Assassination.
While Lee
has his innertextual moments too many films he likes, the one few have noted is
that of Stanley Kubrick’s films, including 2001:
A Space Odyssey of all films. The
circular structure is similar with X at the center. X enjoys the good old days then becomes a
criminal, then X is arrested and is reborn as a Muslim part of an all-black
organization battling against American White Nationalism who decries slavery
including that of the mind and how a layered system was invented in the
beginning to keep all down who were brought here against their will. A system renewed by everything from
Southerners who as you read this are still
angry they lost The Civil War to D.W. Griffith’s Birth Of A Nation purposely reigniting the Klan to rollback
politics of the 1950s (then 1980s) to erase and kill any and all progress made
by African Americans in the prior decades.
Then betrayed by his own, realizes they are following the same slavery
pattern they criticize whiter men for having, made more clear by his trip
outside of his longtime world of the U.S. to find white Muslims, causing he
betrayers to panic and target him.
Like
racial division inside the Black Community based on skin tone (School Daze), to the racial situation
in the Reagan Era (Do The Right Thing)
to the inter-crossings of racial and sexual politics (Jungle Fever, a particular approach of which he continues here),
Lee leaves no stone unturned in addressing these issues and this epic is no
different. The supporting cast including
Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, Delroy Lindo, Theresa Randle, Debi Mazar, Giancarlo
Esposito, Peter Boyle and even Michael Imperioli
So what
does not work? It is a longer film than
it might have needed to be, though deleted scenes suggest a stronger film was
possible. The film is sadly correct that
White Nationalism was alive and well, but does not communicate this strongly
enough or in clever enough ways, which is why the film’s message was lost on
too many and it was not the hit it should or could have been. The result was Hip Hop peaking in 2000 as
George W. Bush took power for eight years, both of which would very likely not
have happened if this film were more effective.
However, the powerful discourse on X that does work is one factor we can
attribute to the election of Barack Obama after Bush’s era ended.
Some
scenes about race seem shortsighted, especially as compared to others that are
powerful and work. And of course, the
events of 9/11 have added a new context to everything in this film in ways all
involved could have never imagined, which is the ultimate test of any serious
film that is about something. That
isolates his following of Islam in a few ways.
With his rhetoric, would he now be considered a “domestic terrorist” or
the like in reactionary and even non-reactionary discourse? Does it also now show his faith as incidental
to what he ultimately achieved in death?
Does it not speak to a failure of Christianity (hijacked by the
Religious Right by the 1980s, which Lee knew all about) and how it becomes a
sign of what he has to oppose since no Religious Left discourse (or any other
safe space with a Black identity) existed to support his efforts when he was
alive?
It is a
film that does succeed im making one think and reiterating a piece of history
that could easily be lost and no matter the problems or setbacks (as one person
once pointed out, Lee tries to tell the Black Experience through the New York
Scholl of Filmmaking and those are contradictory things), Malcolm X has appreciated well at its best and that is why it is
worth visiting and revisiting.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer can show the age of the
materials used, including in the printed subtitles, so this is an older HD
master, yet it has some nice shots to offer and director of Photography Ernest
Dickerson, A.S.C., made this his last collaboration with Lee before eventually
moving onto being a director himself.
One of the greatest director/DP combos of the late 20th
Century, the exceptional use of color, framing and camerawork was always
distinct and created a dense world that could only be Lee’s filmmaking. Originally, the duo considered shooting the
film in 70mm, but make-up limits sadly forced them to abandon that idea.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is not bad for its age, but might be
a generation down, though the screen credit indicates it is an older Dolby
A-type analog film, it was a Dolby Digital 5.1 theatrical release when it
arrived. The move towards digital
started happening earlier than year when Warner debuted the Dolby Digital
format with Batman Returns, so it
became an early release in the format.
Terrence Blanchard scored the film well and Lee’s choice of classic
music is very effective.
Extras in
this great slipcase DigiPak booklet include that illustrated booklet on the
film including informative text on very high quality slick paper, while the
Blu-ray adds the Making Of featurette By Any Means Necessary, the Original
Theatrical Trailer, Deleted Scenes with intro by Lee and a feature length audio
commentary with Lee, Dickerson, Editor Barry Alexander Brown and Costume
Designer Ruth Carter. The bonus DVD has
one extra, the 1972 compilation documentary also called Malcolm X which was co-produced with his widow Betty Shabazz, narrated
by James Earl Jones makes for a great comparison to Lee’s film and has even
more detail, graphic images and information that would not have fit into the
film. A hit in its time, it too is a
valuable document and informs the newer film in interesting ways.
It is
presented in an anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 frame that is fine for such a
documentary, but I wish it had been a high definition Blu-ray presentation
itself and some of the footage is in fine shape. Warner should restore this for HD and most
interesting of all, it is one of the last documentaries of any kind to get dye-transfer,
three-strip Technicolor print treatment, though there is much black and white
footage here. A copy of one of those
original Technicolor prints are now very valuable collector’s items. I would love to see this reissued with extras
as well. The cost to upgrade would be
more than worth it.
- Nicholas Sheffo
