Writer – director Spike Lee had made an impression with his first feature film ‘She’s Gotta Have It’ but it was the truly incendiary 1989 film ‘Do The Right Thing’ that grabbed audiences by the throat and really focussed attention on the uneasy mix of multi culturalism on a street in Brooklyn that boils over into violence. Rightly nominated for two Oscars – one for Lee’s screenplay the first of several he has received before winning for Black Klansman – it established him as a much needed voice in black cinema for issues both political and civil that had been previously overlooked. His following two films, ‘Mo Better Blues’ (1990) and ‘Jungle fever’ (1991) didn’t really land although the latter had a truly great performance from aspiring actor Samuel L Jackson that bought him to the attention of Tarantino. 1992 would change that when he turned to another influential figure in black history with the controversial Malcolm X..
It was an epic film running at well over three hours the life of Malcom Little whose life as a small time criminal and his self-education in prison and his emerging as a an influential black nationalist leader as a member of the Nation of Islam before his eventual assassination on 21st February 1965 and it needed it. There was debate that Martin Luther King was a more significant figure in the civil rights era but Malcolm Little’s life had been more conflict that King’s though both had been assassinated. Little’s widow quickly came on board as an advisor but Lee found himself fighting the studio for the size of budget he needed. $33m was the budget he drew up, not an unreasonable amount for an epic, but the studio declined instead offering only $20m for a two hour film arguing that none of Lee’s previous films had made over $100m. Lee gave up the majority of his salary but it still wasn’t enough and went over budget with financiers shutting it down in post production forcing Lee to get further finance from high profile black celebrities that included Oprah, Michael Jordan, Prince and ..um…Bill Cosby. After screening rough cut for Warners the studio relented and funded the shortfall.
Bizarrely Eddie Murphy was interested in appearing in the film but Lee cast well with Denzel Washington in the title role and his star was on the rise after his Oscar win for 1990’s ‘Glory’. Washington had appeared in Lee’s ‘Mo Better Blues’ and a crowd pleasing actioner Ricochet but Malcolm x was a sombre and through exploration of a man who had been pivotal as a leader in the black community. It remains one of the actors best roles and he was rewarded with an Oscar nomination losing out to Al Pacino hoo- haaing his way through ‘Scent of a Woman’ in a role that was far from his best but clearly the Academy felt it was his turn to win. Lee had a great cast with Washington in the lead he cast himself once more in his own film as the friend Shorty but he also had excellent support from Angela Bassett as Malcolm’s wife, along with Delroy Lindon, Theresa Randle and a young Giancarlo Esposito amongst many others.
The film’s release and subject matter would not be without controversy. That the film opened with footage of the beating of Rodney King that sparked the L.A.riots set out his intent. Malcom X’s infamous, ‘ by any means necessary’ speech that riled some but it was a speech that had to be included and could never be ignored. Lee fought hard to include his speeches comparing it to making an Elvis biopic without any Elvis songs. The film received criticism by black nationalists and members of the United Front to Preserve the Legacy of Malcolm X, headed by poet and playwright Amiri Baraka who were worried about how Lee would portray Malcolm X and a protest in Harlem drew over two hundred people. Equally there were trivial complaints that included that Washington’s skin tone was too dark to accurately portray Malcolm, who had lighter skin with freckles. Another complaint was Washington’s height of only 6′ 1″ as compared to that of Malcolm X, which was 6′ 4″. When promoting the film lee himself insisted on only black reporters interview him claiming that they would have more insight into such a person as Malcom X. The assassination proved another bone of contention too with theories about who had ordered the killing and whilst never explored in the film Lee names the assassins in the credits.
X was widely regarded as one of the most influential films of the 1990’s, a decade that also included Goodfellas and Pulp Fiction and though its box office was average earning only $48m it was selected in 2010 for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”.
The film is now released on 4K UHD for the first time and it does look excellent but what does disappoint is the bonus features which include only the trailer and deleted scenes which are introduced by Spike Lee himself. It is his intro where he praises the format to include such bonus features that seems ironic because whilst his explanation for each of the deleted scenes is insightful the disc really misses his commentary from previous releases especially as he himself states how important they can be for students and other film makers wanting to expand their knowledge of the process. But bonus features aside X remains an important film for Lee, who had a fire in his belly about bringing the film and this slice of history to a wider audience and he does in his usual exemplary way
related feature : The making of Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods……
related feature : A famous actor ‘blacks up’ / Why did this happen? / Lindsay Anderson’s, ‘Oh Lucky Man’
Here’s the Malcolm X trailer…..
Malcolm X is on 4K UHD and Blu-ray 29th July 2024 from Icon Film Distribution
