Malcolm X **** (1992, Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo, Spike Lee) – Movie Review 10,259

Director Spike Lee’s ambitious, lengthy but  fast-paced 1992 biopic of the Sixties black activist is given special distinction by Denzel Washington’s Oscar-nominated star tour de force performance, full of power, passion and dignity. Malcolm X was nominated for two Oscars: Best Actor (Denzel Washington) and Best Costume Design (Ruth E Carter). Washington won the Silver Berlin Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival (1993).

Malcolm X is an uncomfortable hero, but that is what makes him interesting here, as Malcolm Little progresses from gangster and thief to jailed convict, then convertee to the original Islamic religion, and on to legendary uncompromising African American leader.

Lee, never short of flair and confidence, keeps a big-budget Hollywood-style film moving along compellingly and under control, but, although there is a myriad of explanation and detail, the subject finally eludes him, perhaps because of major studio compromises, and there is a slight sense of disappointment and anti-climax.

But the film grips, informs and challenges, shedding light on its subject and era, while at at the very least you are left with plenty of food for thought after this complex message-laden movie. And Lee’s command of movie-making, with its use of voice-over narration, freeze frames and experimental images, is hugely impressive.

The screenplay by Spike Lee and Arnold Perl is based on The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley.

Also in the cast are Christopher Plummer, Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, Al Freeman Jr, Theresa Randle, Delroy Lindo, Spike Lee, Kate Vernon, Lonette McKee, Tommy Hollis, James McDaniel, Ernest Thomas, Jean-Claude La Marre, O L Duke, Larry McCoy, Maurice Sneed, Debi Mazar, Joe Seneca, Giancarlo Esposito and Craig Wasson.

Malcolm X runs 202 minutes.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,259

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