| Malcolm X | |
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 International theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Spike Lee |
| Screenplay by |
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| Based on | |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Ernest Dickerson |
| Edited by | Barry Alexander Brown |
| Music by | Terence Blanchard |
Production company | |
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Release date |
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Running time | 202 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $35 million[2] |
| Box office | $73 million |
Malcolm X is a 1992 Americanindependent[3]epicbiographicaldrama film about the African-American activistMalcolm X. Directed and co-written bySpike Lee, the film starsDenzel Washington in the title role, alongsideAngela Bassett,Albert Hall,Al Freeman Jr., andDelroy Lindo. Lee has a supporting role, whileBlack Panther Party co-founderBobby Seale, the Rev.Al Sharpton, and future South African presidentNelson Mandela makecameo appearances. The film marked the second collaboration for Lee and Washington, succeedingMo' Better Blues (1990).
The screenplay, co-credited to Lee andArnold Perl, is based largely onAlex Haley's 1965 bookThe Autobiography of Malcolm X. Haley had collaborated with Malcolm X on the book beginning in 1963 and completed it after Malcolm X's death. The film dramatizes key events in Malcolm X's life: his criminal career, his incarceration, hisconversion to Islam, his ministry as a member of theNation of Islam and his later falling out with the organization, his marriage toBetty X, hispilgrimage to Mecca and reevaluation of his views concerningwhites, andhis assassination in 1965. Defining childhood incidents, including his father's death, his mother's mental illness, and his experiences with racism are dramatized in flashbacks.
Malcolm X was distributed byWarner Bros. and released in the United States on November 18, 1992. The same year, Denzel Washington won theNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his performance. At the65th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for two Oscars including theBest Actor for Washington andBest Costume Design forRuth E. Carter. In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[4][5]
One night shortly beforeMalcolm Little is born, a party ofKlansmen surround the Little family home inOmaha, Nebraska, break all the windows, and ride off into the night.
Malcolm has a Grenadian mother and African-American father. His father, an activist for black rights, is killed. His death is registered as a suicide and the family receives no compensation. Malcolm and his siblings are put into protective care. Malcolm performs well in school and dreams of being a lawyer, but his teacher discourages it due to his skin color.
DuringWorld War II Malcolm lives inBoston. One night at a dance, he catches the attention of the white Sophia, and the two begin having sex. Malcolm travels toNew York City'sHarlem with Sophia, where he meets "West Indian" Archie, a gangster who runs a localnumbers game, at a bar. The two become friends and start co-operating an illegal numbers racket. One night at a club, Malcolm claims to have bet on a winning number; Archie disputes this, denying him a large sum of money. A conflict ensues between the two and Malcolm returns to Boston after an attempt on his life. Malcolm, Sophia, Malcolm's friend Shorty, and a woman named Peg decide to perform burglaries to earn money.
By 1946, the group has accrued a large amount of money from their crimes. However, they are later arrested. The two women are sentenced to two years as first offenders, while Malcolm and Shorty are sentenced to 8 to 10 years. While incarcerated, Malcolm meets Baines, a member of theNation of Islam, who directs him to the teachings of the group's leaderElijah Muhammad. Malcolm grows interested in theMuslim religion and lifestyle promoted by the group, and begins to resent white people for mistreating his race. Malcolm isparoled from prison in 1952 after serving six years, and travels to the Nation of Islam's headquarters inChicago. There, he meets Muhammad, who instructs Malcolm to replace his surname "Little" with "X", which symbolizes his lost African surname that was taken from his ancestors by white slavemasters; he is rechristened as "Malcolm X".
Malcolm returns to New York City's Harlem and begins to preach the Nation's message; over time, his speeches draw large crowds of onlookers. Malcolm proposes ideas such as African-American separation from white Americans. In 1958, Malcolm meets nurseBetty Sanders. The two begin dating, quickly marry and become the parents of four daughters. Several years later, Malcolm is now in a high position as the spokesperson of the Nation of Islam. During this time, Malcolm learns that Muhammad had fathered numerous children out of wedlock, contradicting his teachings and Islam.
After PresidentJohn F. Kennedy is assassinated in November 1963, Malcolm comments that the assassination was the product of the white violence that has been prevalent in America since its founding, comparing the killing to "the chickens coming home to roost." This statement damages Malcolm's reputation and Muhammad suspends him from speaking to the press or at temples for 90 days. In early 1964, Malcolm goes on a pilgrimage toMecca where he meets Muslims from all races, including white. Malcolm, having lost his faith in the Nation of Islam and also converting toSunni Islam during his pilgrimage, publicly announces that he is founding theOrganization of Afro-American Unity, which teaches tolerance instead of racial separation. He is exiled from the Nation of Islam, and his house is firebombed in early 1965.
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm prepares to speak before a crowd at theAudubon Ballroom in Harlem, but tragically, disciples of the Nation of Islam shoot him several times. One of Malcolm's bodyguards shoots one of the shooters,Thomas Hagan, in the leg before a furious crowd beats Hagan, after which he is arrested. Malcolm is transported to a hospital, but is pronounced dead on arrival.
The film concludes with a series of clips showing the aftermath of Malcolm's death.Martin Luther King Jr. delivers a eulogy to Malcolm, andOssie Davis recites a speech at Malcolm's funeral.Nelson Mandela delivers a speech to a school, quoting an excerpt from one of Malcolm's speeches.
Political activistsBobby Seale andAl Sharpton makecameo appearances as a pair of street preachers. Civil rights attorneyWilliam Kunstler appears as the judge who sentences Malcolm and Shorty to prison. Future South African PresidentNelson Mandela appears as aSoweto school teacher delivering a lecture on X. Spike Lee regularNicholas Turturro has a minor role as a Boston police officer.Michael Imperioli briefly appears as a news reporter. Film directorJohn Sayles appears as an FBI agent surveilling Malcolm. Washington's then-eight-year-old sonJohn David Washington appears as a Harlem elementary school student; John David would later go on to star as the lead of Lee's 2018 filmBlacKkKlansman.
Ossie Davis provides voiceover narration over the film's closing sequence, reading the eulogy he had originally performed at the real Malcolm's funeral.
"It's such a great story, a great American story, and it reflects our society in so many ways. Here's a guy who essentially led so many lives. He pulled himself out of the gutter. He went from country boy to hipster and semi-hoodlum. From there he went to prison, where he became a Muslim. Then he was a spiritual leader who evolved into a humanitarian."— Producer Marvin Worth on his 25-year effort to make a film about the life of Malcolm X.[6]
ProducerMarvin Worth acquired the rights toThe Autobiography of Malcolm X in 1967. Worth had met Malcolm X, then called "Detroit Red," as a teenager selling drugs in New York City. Worth was fifteen at the time, and spending time aroundjazz clubs in the area. As Worth remembers: "He was selling grass. He was sixteen or seventeen but looked older. He was very witty, a funny guy, and he had this extraordinary charisma. A great dancer and a great dresser. He was very good-looking, very, very tall. Girls always noticed him. He was quite a special guy."[7]
Early on, the production had difficulties telling the entire story, in part due to unresolved questions surrounding Malcolm X's assassination. In 1971, Worth made a well-received documentaryMalcolm X (1972), which received anAcademy Award nominationin that category. The project remained unrealized. However, several major entertainers were attached to it at various times, includingRichard Pryor,Eddie Murphy, and directorSidney Lumet.[7]
In 1968, Worth commissioned a screenplay from novelistJames Baldwin, who was later joined byArnold Perl, a screenwriter who had been a victim ofMcCarthy-erablacklisting.[8] However, the screenplay took longer to develop than anticipated. Perl died in 1971.[7]
Baldwin developed his work on the screenplay into the 1972 bookOne Day, When I Was Lost: A Scenario Based on Alex Haley's The Autobiography of Malcolm X. In 1976, Baldwin wrote of his experience, "I think that I would rather be horsewhipped, or incarcerated in the forthright bedlam of Bellevue, than repeat the adventure".[9] Baldwin died in 1987. Several authors attempted drafts, includingDavid Mamet,David Bradley,Charles Fuller andCalder Willingham.[7][10] Once Spike Lee took over as director, he rewrote the Baldwin-Perl script. Due to the revisions, the Baldwin family asked the producer to take his name off the credits. ThusMalcolm X only credits Perl and Lee as the writers and Malcolm X and Alex Haley as the authors ofThe Autobiography of Malcolm X.[7]
The production was considered controversial long before filming began. The crux of the controversy was Malcolm X's denunciation of whites before he undertook hishajj. He was, arguably, not well regarded among white citizens by and large; however, he had risen to become a hero in the African-American community and a symbol of blacks' struggles, particularly during the presidencies ofRonald Reagan andGeorge H. W. Bush. In the three years before the movie's release, sales ofThe Autobiography of Malcolm X had increased 300 percent, and four of his books had a nine-fold increase in sales between 1986 and 1991.[10]
OnceWarner Bros. agreed to the project, they initially wantedOscar-nominated Canadian film directorNorman Jewison to direct the film. Jewison, director of the seminal civil rights filmIn the Heat of the Night (1967), was able to bring Denzel Washington into the project to play Malcolm X. Jewison and Washington previously worked together inA Soldier's Story (1984).[10] Jewison also offeredEddie Murphy the role ofAlex Haley in this version of the film.[11] A protest erupted over the fact that a white director was slated to make the film.[10] Spike Lee was one of the main voices of criticism; since college, he had considered a film adaptation ofThe Autobiography of Malcolm X to be a dream project. Lee and others felt that it was appropriate that only a black person should directMalcolm X.[12]
After the public outcry against Jewison, Worth concluded that "it needed a black director at this point. It was insurmountable the other way...There's a grave responsibility here."[13]
Spike Lee was soon named the director, and he substantially edited the script. "I'm directing this movie and I rewrote the script, and I'm an artist and there's just no two ways around it: this film about Malcolm X is going to be my vision of Malcolm X. But it's not like I'm sitting atop a mountain saying, 'Screw everyone, this is the Malcolm I see.' I've done the research, I've talked to the people who were there."[10] Soon after Spike Lee was announced as the director and before its release,Malcolm X received criticism byblack nationalists and members of the United Front to Preserve the Legacy of Malcolm X, headed by poet and playwrightAmiri Baraka, who were worried about Lee's portrayal of Malcolm X. One protest in Harlem drew over 200 people.[10][14] Some based their opinion on dislike of Lee's previous films; others were concerned that he would focus on Malcolm X's life before he converted to Islam.[10][14][15] Baraka bluntly accused Spike Lee of being a "Buppie", stating "We will not let Malcolm X's life be trashed to make middle-class Negroes sleep easier", compelling others to write the director and warn him "not to mess up Malcolm's life."[10] Some, including Lee himself, noted the irony that many of the arguments made against him mirrored those made against Jewison.[14]
Although Washington agreed to play Malcolm X while Jewison was scheduled to direct the film, Lee stated he never envisioned any actor other than Washington in the role. The two had previously worked together onMo' Better Blues (1990), and Lee noted that Washington had "really captured Malcolm" in hisOff Broadway performance as him.[16]
Spike Lee also encountered difficulty in securing a sufficient budget. Lee told Warners and thebond company that a budget of over US$30 million was necessary; the studio disagreed and offered a lower amount. Following advice from fellow directorFrancis Ford Coppola, Lee got "the movie company pregnant": taking the movie far enough along into actualproduction to attempt to force the studio to increase the budget.[12] The film, initially budgeted at $28 million, climbed to nearly $33 million. Lee contributed $2 million of his own $3 million salary. Completion Bond Company, which assumed financial control in January 1992, refused to approve any more expenditures; in addition, the studio and bond company instructed Lee that the film could be no longer than two hours, fifteen minutes in length.[15] The resulting conflict caused the project to be shut down inpost-production.[12]
The film was saved by the financial intervention of prominent black Americans, some of whom appear in the film:Bill Cosby,Oprah Winfrey,Michael Jordan,Magic Johnson,Janet Jackson,Prince,Tracy Chapman, andPeggy Cooper Cafritz, founder of theDuke Ellington School of the Arts. Their contributions were made as donations; as Lee noted: "This is not a loan. They are not investing in the film. These are black folks with some money who came to the rescue of the movie. As a result, this film will be my version. Not the bond company's version, not Warner Brothers'. I will do the film the way it ought to be, and it will be over three hours."[15] The actions of such prominent members of the African American community giving their money helped finish the project as Lee envisioned it.[10][12]
The dissatisfaction Warners had for how Lee funded the film by completing it through the help of his African American friends later resulted in Warner Bros. blocking out Lee from participating in the development ofSpace Jam (1996), as Lee had approachedJoe Pytka about polishing the film's script.[17]
| "I'm doing what every other person in Hollywood does: they dictate who they want to do interviews with.Tom Cruise,Robert Redford, whoever. People throw their weight around. Well, I get many requests now for interviews, and I would like African-Americans to interview me. [. . .] Spike Lee has never said he only wants black journalists to interview him. What I'm doing is using whatever clout I have to get qualified African-Americans assignments. The real crime is white publications don't have black writers, that's the crime". |
| – Spike Lee explaining his request for black interviewers[18] |
A month before the film was released, Lee asked that media outlets send black journalists to interview him. The request proved controversial. While it was common practice for celebrities to pick interviewers who were known to be sympathetic to them, it was the first time in many years in which race had been used as a qualification. Lee clarified that he was not barring white interviewers from interviewing him, but that he felt, given the subject matter of the film, that black writers have "more insight about Malcolm than white writers".[18]
The request was turned down by theLos Angeles Times, but several others agreed includingPremiere magazine,Vogue,Interview andRolling Stone. TheLos Angeles Times explained they did not give writer approval. The editor ofPremiere noted that the request created internal discussions that resulted in changes at the magazine: "Had we had a history of putting a lot of black writers on stories about the movie industry we'd be in a stronger position. But we didn't. It was an interesting challenge he laid down. It caused some personnel changes. We've hired a black writer and a black editor".[18]
Malcolm X's widow, Dr. Betty Shabazz, served as a consultant to the film.[14] TheFruit of Islam, the defense arm of the Nation of Islam, provided security for the movie.[16]
When Denzel Washington took the role of Malcolm X in the play,When the Chickens Come Home to Roost, which dealt with the relationship between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, he admitted he knew little about Malcolm X and had not yet readThe Autobiography of Malcolm X. Washington prepared by reading books and articles by and about Malcolm X and went over hours of tape and film footage of speeches. The play opened in 1981 and earned Washington a warm review byFrank Rich, who was at the time the chief theater critic ofThe New York Times. Upon being cast in the film, he interviewed people who knew Malcolm X, among them Betty Shabazz and two of his brothers. Although they had different upbringings, Washington tried to focus on what he had in common with his character: during the making of the movie Washington was close to Malcolm X's age when he was assassinated, both men were from large families, both of their fathers were ministers, and both were raised primarily by their mothers.[16]
Malcolm X is the first non-documentary, and the first American film, to be given permission to film inMecca (or within theHaram Sharif). A second unit film crew was hired to film in Mecca because non-Muslims, such as Lee, arenot allowed inside the city. Lee fought very hard to get filming in Mecca but Warners initially refused to put up the money for location shooting. New Jersey was considered for filming the Mecca segments. In the end, Lee got money and permission together for filming in Mecca.[19]
In addition to Nelson Mandela, the film featured cameos byChristopher Plummer (as the prison's Catholic chaplain),Peter Boyle (as a police officer),William Kunstler (as a judge), as well as activistsAl Sharpton andBlack Panther Party co-founderBobby Seale (as street preachers).[20]
The film was made shortly after Mandela's 1990 release from prison and during thenegotiations to end apartheid in South Africa. Lee explained that he made "the connection betweenSoweto and Harlem, Nelson and Malcolm, and what Malcolm talked about:pan-Africanism, trying to build these bridges between people of color. He is alive in children in classrooms in Harlem, in classrooms in Soweto."[8] Mandela ends the film with a quote from Malcolm X himself, with Malcolm in a film clip saying the last four words. The quote goes: "We declare our right on this earth, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being, in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existenceby any means necessary."
| External videos | |
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 "Malcolm X, The Movie: Cinema as History", panel discussion at the American University School of Communication, March 1, 1993C-SPAN |
Malcolm X was released in North America on November 18, 1992. The film released overseas in 1993, between February and March in Europe.[21]
Malcolm X was released byThe Criterion Collection onUltra HD Blu-ray andBlu-ray Disc on November 22, 2022.[22]
In the United States and Canada, the film grossed$9.9 million in its opening weekend, finishing third afterHome Alone 2: Lost in New York ($30 million) andBram Stoker's Dracula ($15 million).[7] According toBox Office Mojo, the film ended its domestic run with a gross of $48,169,910.[23] Due to the budget issues and costs of promotion, Warner Bros. claimed the film lost over $30 million in 1992.[24]
Upon its United Kingdom release in 1993, it grossed£2,140,598[25] ($3,209,292).[26] The film also sold 594,984 tickets in France,[27] 127,306 tickets in Germany,[27] and 133,798 tickets in Spain.[21] In South Korea, it sold 28,159 tickets in the capital city ofSeoul.[28] The film grossed $24,933,000 internationally in its original release,[29] for a worldwide total of$73,102,910.
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 79 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The critics' consensus states: "Anchored by a powerful performance from Denzel Washington, Spike Lee's biopic of the legendary civil rights leader brings his autobiography to life with an epic sweep and a nuanced message."[30] OnMetacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[31] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to Fscale.[32]
CriticRoger Ebert ofThe Chicago Sun-Times ranked the film No. 1 on his Top 10 list for 1992 and described the film as "one of the great screen biographies, celebrating the sweep of an American life that bottomed out in prison before its hero reinvented himself."[33] In 1999, Ebert and directorMartin Scorsese, the latter sitting in for Ebert's late co-hostGene Siskel, both rankedMalcolm X among the ten best films of the 1990s.[34]
However,bell hooks was much less favourable. In her essay, 'Spike Lee Doing Malcolm X: Denying Black Pain', hooks argues that Lee's "film does not compel viewers to confront, challenge, and change. It embraces and rewards passive response - inaction. It encourages us to weep, but not to fight."[35] She saw Lee as an "insider" to the film industry, making a film for predominently white audiences that followed the conventions of "other Hollywood epic ... fictive biographies". She described the first half of the film as being half "neo-minstrel spectacle" and half "tragic"; criticised the portrayal of Malcolm's relationship with Sophia as having the "same shallowness of vision" as Lee's other filmic portrayals of interracial relationships; and disavowed Denzel Washington's potential to escape his reputation as "everybody's nice guy", meaning that he could never portray Malcolm's "'threatening' physical presence". All of which made Malcolm "appear less militant, more open". In her reading of the film, Lee is "primarily fascinated by Malcolm's fierce critique of white racism" and his early view of racism as "a masculinist phallocentric struggle for power between white men and black men". Thus, the film missed Malcolm's later politics in which he had a "critique of racism in conjunction with imperialism and colonialism" and the film "certainly" did not contain Malcolm's "critique of capitalism".
African-Americanexperimental filmmakerRobert Banks'smixed mediafilm essay,X: The Baby Cinema, a 4.5 minute,16 mmshort film made in the same year which chronicled the commercial appropriation of the image ofMalcolm X, was met with disdain from Spike.[36]
Denzel Washington's portrayal was widely praised and he was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Actor. Washington lost toAl Pacino (forScent of a Woman), a decision which Lee criticized, saying "I'm not the only one who thinks Denzel was robbed on that one."[37]
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