Malcolm X

I decided to eschew the delights of Russia v Czech’s for this Spike Lee joint starring the world’s best actor Denzel! This is a very strange movie indeed, you would struggle to get something like this made today. Malcom X’s story is a very interesting one, father murdered, mother sectioned, he was bright but channelled into menial jobs, he becomes a criminal, goes to prison, converts to Islam and becomes an incendiary black rights advocate, falls out with the corrupt organisation he belongs to and is assassinated by his ex colleagues. It’s a great story to tell and Denzel is brilliant, he totally convinces as Malcolm X and this is key to the movie as you need to buy in to his transformation and the effect he has on people. Obviously with Spike Lee there are some great visual flourishes, the opening scene with Spike himself striding through the streets is amazing, lots of use of colours to denote shifts in tone, lots to appreciate on screen. However there is a lot wrong with the movie, it is way too long, you could have trimmed the run time by half an hour easily. The sequence before he goes to prison is far too long, the flashbacks to his father’s murder too frequent, to run up to the assassination gets really tedious which is a mistake as the actual scene itself is very powerful. You also have cringeworthy coda at the end with school kids and then Mandela turns up in a funky shirt. Very messy which is a shame as at heart this is a really good biopic certainly superior to other political biopics like the dreadful “Milk”. This is a case where I would like to see someone re-cut the film as it could be a lot better

pretty slow and boring in parts even predictable maybe some would say but not too bad entertaing wise for a oldish film

I found this strange history. As a young man growing up in the 60s I knew the fearsome reputation of MX but many parts of this film were a revelation. Well acted with a sumptuous colour palette, the film tries to navigate between honour, veneration and something more realist. The fact that it fails to hold this balance is in part due to the three ill-disciplined hours it takes to tell the story. Narration moves around and so does focus.

The final segment does not convince me, no matter who is the source. This is not the story of a great man but it certainly would make an interesting 90 minute bio of a troubled one.

Certainly an epic in terms of length but the first half is pretty slow and building to an inevitable end. I understand why Lee felt the need to show X's past before he changed but it was just too slow. Apart from this the film of course is massively important in education terms and will forever be an important political piece.

I have wanted to this movie for ages and was very disappointed, it was like watching paint dry and I had to force myself to watch it all. Talk about a slow burner!