Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / Malcolm X (1992) - Spike Lee | Houselights #181

Transcript

Malcolm X (1992) - Spike Lee | Houselights #181 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

0:03
Welcome to the Nerd Party. Welcome back to the House of Lee, House
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of Spike Lee that is here on House Lights on the Nerd Party Network,
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the podcast that explores the work of directors. We're looking at seminal works from
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mister Lee from different decades, and so we will go through his entire career,
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one film at a time from each decade. This week finds us exploring
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nineteen ninety two's Malcolm X and I am delighted actually to talk about this film
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because I myself have a long history with this film from the first time I
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saw it up until now. I'm one of your hosts, John Mills,
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and joining me as always are Tristan Medell and Darren Moser to explore this work
0:58
that made a big in nineteen ninety two, and we'll be taking a look
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at to see, you know, has it held up and was it worth
1:07
the praise at the time, and would it be worth the praise were it
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released now. So I'm going to fess up, I've seen this movie several
1:15
times before this point. They're forgetting precisely when I encountered it, but I
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came across it many years ago, and you know, one of the centerpieces
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of it, as always is Denzel Washington. This is like a landmark performance
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of his career, and that's saying something considering we even talked about Glory previously,
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where he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar and all of the work that
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he's done since, but this is definitely a role that he's very much associated
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with, and we'll get to how he came into the role and everything like
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that. But obviously I'm talking about how much I've seen it before, and
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we always love to talk about our first encountering of it, and I believe
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Tristan and Darren this is your first time seeing the film for both of you,
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and so I'll toss it to you first. When you came into this
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film, I movie talked about this with Do the Right Thing. What kind
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of background did you have with it? Had people talked about it a lot?
2:10
Was a movie? Was it a movie you had always been curious to
2:13
see? Was it something that people had said it's not worth the hype?
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Like what kind of what kind of preconceived notions were you coming in with.
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I mean, that's a that's a really solid question because this is one of
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those films that I knew about just because of the poster where it was Denzel's
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face and sometimes just like with a big X, like this is Malcolm max
2:36
X, this is him playing Malcolm X. And it was never really I
2:40
was never the biggest Spike Lee fan for a very long time. I I've
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grown to respect his filmmaking techniques. I've as his filmography has grown, my
2:53
appreciation for his work has grown. But back in the day, I'd never
2:57
really liked Spike Lee, and so I kind of stayed away from it.
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It wasn't like, oh, I'm gonna hate it. It was just kind
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of like, oh, Spike Lee. I like Denzil, but I don't
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really like Spike Lee. So I never really heard anything about it. I've
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never seen a clip from it. I've never seen really, not even a
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clip, not even a clip. See that fascinates me. Wow, that's
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amazing. This is this was so far outside of my radar. It's just
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no one talked about it, no one. No one talked about it in
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the in the negative, no one talked about it in the positive. It
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just wasn't talked about. And so it was it was not really in my
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consciousness. It was like it was a something I saw at Blockbuster beginning an
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end of sentence. That's fascinating. I mean, Darren, are you coming
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at it from the same sort of angle or had people talked it up in
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the years coming up to this point. I had at least seen a clip.
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I had seen the clip when he goes to the police station and is
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commanding the group outsides. Very powerful. One of the most powerful scenes of
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the movie. And I don't think it was the entire thing, but just
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the you know, putting his hand up and then just kind of going to
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point and they all just march off and it is just, Yeah, it
4:13
is a very well acted scene. And I was looking forward to this though.
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I mean, we love Denzel and this oh yeah, if you haven't
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listened to the show before this episode, we are a big Denzel fan.
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Yeah, honestly, I'm a card carrying member of the Denzel Washington Fan Club.
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And I think you two gentlemen are as well, because the guy is
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just an incredible actor. Between Tony Scott and Zwick, we watched like six
4:39
Denzel movies in a row unintentionally, but they're like, oh, we just
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found the directors that loved Denzel and just went from there. So yeah,
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so I was looking forward to that. I knew a little bit about it,
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as far as I knew that Malcolm X was assassinated. I knew a
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lot of it took place in the sixties, but I didn't know like how
5:00
far back we were going to go. I didn't know it was going to
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be very long, like Lord of the Rings chapter long. But you know
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it, it sunk in. It sunk into telling this story, and it
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committed to a pace and stuck with that. So, you know what,
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it's the age of streaming. It's even pausing. I can chop it up
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into a bit. I actually watched this over I think two days, the
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second of day being apparently Malcolm X Day, which I didn't realize that main
5:33
idea was that day. We're actually recording this on May nineteenth, which is
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the proposed and in some places celebrated Malcolm X Day. Yeah, it was
5:45
a little surreal where the very end of the movie, Nelson Mandela is saying,
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and that's why we celebrate on May nineteen that I looked over at the
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calendar, I'm like, oh, I didn't know it was that topical.
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Well, that's it, you know, you touch on it commits to a
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pace and it sticks with the pace. And so Tristan, you know,
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I tease you all the time about your editorial quibbles and stuff like that,
6:10
not going to throw any jokes out there, and it's would you cut out
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of this movie? Tristan, You know what? I would like to just
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sort of like build on what you were saying, though, Darren was like,
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do you agree that it stuck to a pace, that it was committed
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to telling at a certain pace and that it didn't waiver or did you find
6:26
that there were any ebbs and flows in the storytelling. I thought there were
6:30
ebbs and flows all over the place. I think I think Darren is correct
6:33
that it's stuck to a certain pace. It is stabbed. I think Lee
6:36
knew exactly what he wanted to do, and that was very clear. It
6:41
came across very clearly that this is what he wanted to make. This is
6:45
the movie he wanted to make. And there's some behind the scenes information that
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I thought was very interesting about how I think I can't remember who the initial
6:53
studio was, but they got cold feet and then it went. It eventually
6:57
wound up at Warner Brothers, and they said they're like Okay, we're only
7:02
going to pay for a two hour and twenty minute movie, and Lee said,
7:05
no, screw that, like I need this to be three hours and
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twenty minutes. And so during post production they pulled the they said were like,
7:15
we're not giving you any more money like this is you only have enough
7:17
money to make a two hour and twenty minute film. And so it actually
7:20
halted post production and Spike Lee went to some of his rich friends and said,
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hey, will you give to this project? And he made it clear
7:30
that it's like it's not alone, it's not an investment. This is a
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straight up gift just to make sure that this movie got made. And I
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think it was like Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, I think
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though the woman who started the Duke Ellington School, you know, like some
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really big names from really big celebrities who are black, that were like,
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yes, like we have money, we have influence. Here's here's the funny.
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You need to tell the story. And so you could tell it was
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very import and to Lee that to get that extra hour. Now, to
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me, I want to I want to preface this comment and actually the entire
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podcast before we move forward, is that we are talking about Malcolm X the
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movie directed by Spike Lee. That's what we're talking about tonight. We're not
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talking about Malcolm X the Man. We're talking about Malcolm X as portrayed by
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Denzel Washington and Spike Lee. And so just wanted to get that out there
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that any criticisms that we have for the movie or the portrayal or the performance
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or whatever is just that, and that's what this podcast is about. So
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with me, I think this movie should have been two hours and twenty minutes.
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I very much think this movie should have been two hours and twenty minutes.
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Now what the hell do I know? Who knows? Because this movie
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has a criterion edition and it got accepted into the National Film Registry, so
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obviously this movie st Tristan. Yeah, It's basically what I'm saying is that
9:03
like three hours and twenty two minutes. It was fine for a lot of
9:07
people in this movie struck a chord for me personally as I was watching this,
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and I kind of want to propose this to you guys, if you
9:13
don't mind me doing that, is this movie should have started with him going
9:18
to prison like Shawshank, and then give a few flashbacks to how he wound
9:24
up there, and I think you would have a much stronger piece. In
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my opinion, I'm actually going to politely disagree with you on that. Please
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do, please do, because oh, thank you. I appreciate that,
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thank you, thank you very much. I'm going to disagree specifically because I
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don't have an issue with the length of it. And I think I don't
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have an issue with the length of it because I think it was ninety one
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or ninety Yeah, it was ninety one where JFK came out, and that
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is Oliver Stone's like the ultimate nineteen sixties retrospective double feature for me is JFK
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and Malcolm X. Like those two movies put together, because it's two very
10:03
singular visions of the time from two very singular directors who have a very clear
10:11
vision of what they're trying to say about that period in history. And I
10:16
understand what you're saying about trimming time. I would find other ways to tighten
10:20
this up. I agree that three and a half hours is self indulgent.
10:24
I think that this, I think that this is While I wouldn't cut a
10:28
whole hour out of it, I could get this closer to three hours,
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maybe even two hours forty five. But I enjoy the fact that it's given
10:35
an epic sense to it, specifically because Malcolm X is a figure that by
10:41
this point in history hadn't been given a fair amount of attention to. And
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I think that what Lee feels coming into it is no, this this person
10:50
is of sufficient importance. We talk about JFK all the time. We talk
10:54
about MLK all the time, we talk about Vietnam all the time, we
10:56
talk about all of these things all the time. We know, I ever
11:00
really talk about somebody like Malcolm X, or Huey Newton or or even RFK,
11:07
Like he's always in the shadow of JFK. And it's like he had
11:09
his own thing going. Man, Like, it's not fair we even had
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We even had Danny DeVito's like two and a half plus hour HOFA movie.
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So it's like, I think that this slots right in perfectly. Well there
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I think where it's self indulgent, And I think maybe what you're responding to
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is Spike Lee's invention of a character so that he could play Malcolm X's best
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friend for a first portion of like the first act of the film is like,
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ah, that feels a little bit wedged in there, like, I
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don't think that Lee's performance is as I'm looking for the right word, but
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it's not as flat as it was and do the right thing right. He
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feels more naturally in here with Denzel. And he's also literally the first person
11:58
we see true in the film called Malcolm X, and we see Spike Lee
12:03
himself the director instead of seeing Malcolm X first. That is true. That
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is true. But you know, and Darren, I'll throw this over to
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you, like, is the length of the film an issue for you?
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Because the thing is, I get it, like three and a half hours.
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That's a big ask of somebody, and so you got to put yourself.
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You mentioned streaming, the ability to pause. Is this a film?
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Though objectively speaking, you would have been okay with sitting in a movie theater
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for three and a half hours watching. I mean, maybe this is a
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combat answer, but I think this movie would have been better served as like
12:41
a mini series. It makes me think of like Dune, like Children of
12:45
Dune and other like seminal works where like give him more time, give him,
12:52
you know, like I guess this would have been roughly four episodes an
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hour ish each, give him like five or six like a six episode biopic.
13:03
You know, even if you're still broadcasting it, it's like everybody tunes
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in at five o'clock for a week straight, or however you want to air
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it. I mean that's back in ninety two. Nowadays, I would obviously
13:13
just drop all at once, you know, on a streaming platform. But
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it's like often I feel with movies of this length, Yeah, you kind
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of reach a tipping point where if you're gonna give it that much time anyway,
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just go all in and just give them all the time they need.
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It affects how you're gonna cut it, how you're gonna pace it. You're
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gonna have kind of natural chapter breaks that kind of make it more watchable because
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you can pop in an episode or two for a night and then come back.
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As opposed to you know, if this was a double VHS, it
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probably was. If Titanic was, this definitely was definitely was a double V
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Where do you put that cut? Where do you make the so I would
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say the short answer, no, it really wasn't. You know, it
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didn't turn me off to watching it. I had to schedule my life to
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accommodate it. But I would have been fine. If this had been a
14:15
mini series and even longer, I don't I think there's material there. You
14:18
could have flushed it out a little more. You know, I don't want
14:22
just to push the running time, but I think a mini series of this
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would have been amazing and maybe the better format. But not in ninety two.
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That didn't exist, or that was less likely sorry, not existing,
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it was less likely to be the choice, like your choice was ease.
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So when you're deciding how do I want to make this, Yeah, I
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get you know, a movie you make money, or it's in theaters,
14:46
it's really seen versus a one one week of American television and then it's gone,
14:52
like it's a different vibe now song as we're talking about the making of
14:58
and that, you know, all the stuff that went into it and you
15:00
know, format and everything like that. One thing that caused a great deal
15:05
of controversy at the time was the original director, who is the director who
15:07
brought in Denzel Washington to the project, Norman Jewison, who would WB felt
15:13
was a safe choice for it because he had directed In the Heat of the
15:16
Night, which was, you know, a big civil rights statement film,
15:22
and so they brought him in and there was a protest about Norman Jewison directing
15:28
a film about Malcolm X, and one of the loudest voices about that was
15:33
Spike Lee. Now casting aside any other personal motivations he might have had,
15:39
because of course he winds up directing the film, Lee has you know,
15:43
he made a point that a black director should direct this specific film. One
15:50
of his reasonings was, and I remember at the time, I haven't researched
15:54
the quote specifically where it was, but I remember reading at the time that
15:56
one of his reasonings was he said, don't you think and I'm paraphrasing,
16:00
don't you think Coppola brought something additional to The Godfather because Italian American history was
16:06
part of his upbringing, Which I think is a valid sort of argument to
16:11
make. But of course the argument gets a little tarnished because Lee winds up
16:15
directing it. But to boil it down to that core element, Tristan,
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do you think that Spike Lee has more trouble getting a three and a half
16:26
hour Malcolm X movie made than Norman Jewison? Like if Jewison had been directing
16:30
it, do you think that being an established director, he would have been
16:34
able to be Like no listen, studio, I'm doing this the length that
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I want to do. You think that Spike Lee himself, the studio started
16:42
off on a foot where they felt he had sort of bullied his way into
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the job to begin with, and so they fought him a little bit.
16:51
I think that's absolutely the reason. I think he asked for I think thirty
16:56
three million, and they said, no, we're going to give you twenty.
16:59
And one of the reasons why is because his movies up until that point
17:06
had not made a lot of money. Like he made good films, even
17:11
you know, even with do the Right Thing, like you know, this
17:15
is these are these are good, well made films and well received films,
17:18
but they weren't blockbusters. They weren't movies that, you know, like had
17:22
people lining up down the street. They weren't movies that brought in tons of
17:26
cash. And so when a director who hasn't made a lot of money is
17:30
asking for a lot of money at that time, you know, thirty three
17:34
was like something like seventy eighty million in today's dollars. You know, you
17:40
know Jewison, you know, the guy made in the Heat of the Night
17:42
and Fiddler, you know, like yeah, like he's he's he's going to
17:45
be able to get he's going to be able to command a little bit more
17:48
cash. So again, all you know, talent completely aside, right choice,
17:53
completely aside. I think that's absolutely one of the reasons why they fought
17:59
is because this is a Spike Lee joint, and Spike Lee joints up until
18:03
this point didn't make a lot of money. So Darren, given all of
18:07
these things that come into it, Lee finds himself in the director's chair,
18:11
has his you know, arguments back and forth with the studio through the entire
18:15
thing. The ultimate question becomes, do you think that his visual style And
18:19
this is only the second one we're looking at in terms of this series,
18:22
but we've I think we've all seen other Spike Lee films up to this point.
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Do you think his visual sensibility and the editing that he works with you
18:33
know, buryl Alexander Brown to put together does it flow? Does this feel
18:38
like a film that is an epic film directed by somebody with epic sensibilities or
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does it feel like an epic film with somebody who's not used to making epic
18:48
films. No, I would I give him the benefit of the doubt.
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I give him the credit because it's a beautiful film. It you can tell
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it was a passion project. It was something that he felt really strongly about.
19:03
And it looks great. It doesn't look like a low budget I tried,
19:08
you know it it has. I mean it's also a period piece,
19:11
so you have to get the cars right and the costumes right, and the
19:17
you know, wardrobe. I think wardrobe and hair style like is really on
19:22
point in this whole movie. It there's something as subtle as how someone cuts
19:26
their hair that places you in the sixties or doesn't. And so all those
19:33
pieces together. The visual style it obviously, I mean we're comparing this to
19:38
do the Right Thing, which is way more stylistic, has those crazy Dutch
19:44
angles that Tristan loves. But no, I think it's it's definitely I don't
19:49
want to say toned down, but all the shots are poignant. I think
19:56
the stuff he does where Malcolm is kind of converting to Islam and like has
20:02
a vision, the inner cutting, the inner cutting is there a lot more
20:07
in the beginning, and then it kind of starts to taper away, like
20:11
as we're getting his past and his father dying and all of that. But
20:15
then By the time we get through the main you know, crux of the
20:18
movie, it's pretty much a solid straight film until we get to the day
20:22
of his death, and then we start to play with not tempo, but
20:29
you can tell something's coming, and I think that's on purpose, so very
20:33
purposeful film. Yeah, I think you did a fantastic job overall. Tristan,
20:38
the same question to you, is this somebody who was ready for this
20:44
epic scale or is this something that feels like it got a little bit out
20:47
of his hands as he did something that was such a you know, a
20:52
three and a half hour epic versus just even looking back at do the right
20:56
thing, a two hour intimate tale with a small scale to it. Is
21:00
this a director who is ready for this? I think, even if I
21:04
disagree with the run time in the structure, don't I don't think this was
21:11
a director that felt like the movie got away from him. This very much
21:15
felt like, as I said at the beginning of the podcast, like this
21:18
feels like a movie. This is the movie that Spike Lee wanted to make.
21:22
He had a vision in his head. This is a story I wanted
21:23
to tell. He had it on you know, pen and paper and he
21:29
had the storyboards in his head and boom, and he made it happen.
21:32
That's what this movie feels like, even though it's three hours and twenty two
21:34
minutes, even though I think it should be structured differently or much shorter,
21:41
At no point did I feel any kind of incompetency, just a disagreement.
21:45
And yeah, so I think Spike Lee, at this point in his career,
21:49
with the with the amount of you know, quality of his own performance
21:53
that he brings, this was the right movie at the right time, for
21:56
the right director. I mean, I'm gonnabviously agree with the two of you,
22:00
because I think that Lee's natural sensibility to keep scale restrained benefits him because
22:10
when things are a larger scale, when there are larger groups, when they
22:14
are larger crowds, when there are when there's the scene in front of the
22:17
police station, it's not somebody coming from a an idea of it's not a
22:23
Jim Cameron sensibility of you know, we're going to spend four hundred million dollars
22:29
on this one shot, and we're going to bring in people who all you
22:32
know, blah blah blah and all of that type of stuff. You got
22:34
the sense right, you got the scale. He knew how to frame it
22:38
and make the most of the real estate on screen. And I felt when
22:44
I when I needed to feel like there were things outside of frame, it
22:47
felt like they were there without without forcing it. Now one other aspect of
22:53
it is, of course the casting. I mean Jewison brings in Denzel Washington,
22:59
which I'm I mean I think that I mean Washington. They in a
23:03
large sense, not just his skills as an actor, but when he grows
23:08
the goateee near the end, the likeness to Malcolm X visually, like through
23:14
the whole movie, I'm like, yah, you know it's Denzel's Denzel.
23:17
And then when he grew the go tee, I was like, holy Moses,
23:19
right you put on the horn room glasses and the go tea. I
23:22
was like, Wow, that really evokes the silhouette of Malcolm X. I
23:27
was impressed with that. But I think that everybody fixates on Washington, and
23:33
I want to ask, and Darren, I'll toss it to you first.
23:36
Is Angela Bassett an underappreciated player in this film? Do you think that she
23:41
provides a necessary anchor or do you think that she is underutilized? Do you
23:48
think that she is appropriately appreciated by the director for what she's bringing to the
23:55
screenplay, to what we're watching. I'll always see more Angela Bassett, amazing
24:00
actress. She we didn't have any character that kind of represented the outside world.
24:10
Everything was so inside the Nation of Islam, inside the brotherhood, inside
24:17
his home and his house. All we had was the newspaper. That was
24:21
really all there was to represent how does the world feel about this? How
24:26
is the man on the street, how is the rest of the country going
24:30
by at this moment? And so I felt like she could have maybe served
24:37
a dual purpose of you know, because she's not in it as much,
24:40
because he's often not where she is he and he even says that I'm going
24:44
to be away. I'm going to be gone. But if she could have
24:48
also represented even more about this is how people see you, this is how
24:55
you know I perceive you, this is how the world is kind of you
24:59
know, almost giving a commentary on his life as his life is happening.
25:03
I think that something like that could have been. It doesn't have to be
25:06
Angela Bassett for that role, but it could have been. But overall,
25:11
I feel like that was a gap in the story. Uh, I guess
25:17
to kind of lean off of what you said, I didn't feel like the
25:21
real world was past the edge of the camera in that regard. I mean,
25:26
it obviously was, but we were never really told what was going on.
25:30
I think it's really blew my mind. That's a really great point.
25:34
Seriously great point. It's yeah, I felt that without knowing it, and
25:38
you articulated it. Yeah, I think I think that is actually I mean,
25:44
Tristan, I was about to ask you, Tristay, Yeah, well,
25:45
you know, do you agree with Darren on that one? But I
25:48
think we both come in That was a really great encapsulation of what I think
25:52
is. You know, is it does it detract from the film? Does
25:56
it like it? You know, each viewer will have to decide sort of
25:59
thing, right, but it trists in the same same question to you basically,
26:03
like, you know, Angela Bassett in what she's given to do,
26:07
do you think that this is an appropriate use of her talents? Could she
26:11
have been given more of an opportunity in this film? Or do you think
26:15
that she's effective in the way that she's written? And you know, basically,
26:18
you give an actor the script and it's like this is what this is
26:22
what you're going to say, and this is where you are. Should they
26:23
have taken a second look at that and said, you know, let's rewrite
26:26
this a little bit, expand Bassett's performance or her role in some way.
26:33
Well that actually, I'm going to ignore your question. Not not going to
26:36
ignore your question. No, that's a solid question because it leads me to
26:38
something larger that of that. Do you remember the movie good Night, Good
26:47
Luck, directed by George Clooney about Edward Arma. Never saw it? Oh
26:52
really, Darren, did you see it? I think? So it's about
26:56
the Murrow. Yeah, David strath plays Murrow, right, yeah, the
27:00
Red Scare with McCarthy and everything like that. Yeah, yeah, it's about
27:06
Muraw against McCarthy. But whoa okay, well, okay, Well the thing
27:10
with that is that so much of the movie is Strathurned performing broadcasts that are
27:18
recorded, you know, like we know what Murrow said, we know exactly
27:22
what Murrow said, we know exactly what he looked like when he said it,
27:25
and there's so like eighty percent of that movie is stuff that literally happened
27:30
or was literally said by Murrow, And so it was very much an editor's
27:36
movie. In my opinion, you know, good night, good luck.
27:38
Now, the reason why I'm saying that is so much of this movie of
27:45
Malcolm X is his speeches, his public speaking events, which obviously you have
27:52
to do that because Malcolm X was a phenomenal public speaker and a very influential
27:59
public speed. I mean like, you can't have this movie without having his
28:02
speeches. In fact, actually, side note to the side note, they
28:06
almost didn't get the rights to Malcolm X's speeches for this movie, and Spike
28:11
Lee was like, can you imagine making this movie without his speeches. That's
28:15
like making an Elvis movie without the rights to Elvis music. And while I
28:18
think that was a great thing because it allowed Washington to shine right with his
28:26
speeches, I mean, it's they're phenomenal. It's some of the best things
28:29
about the movie. And the reason why some of the best things about the
28:32
movie is because Malcolm X himself was such a great public speaker. All that
28:36
said, it felt like an editor's movie. Because of that, it felt
28:38
like you're recreating instead of creating. And part of me feels like Angela Bassett
28:45
and her you know, her character, which is based off of the real
28:49
life person of Betty Shabaz, who was a consultant on this film, would
28:55
have been if you wanted to expand her role, it would have been a
28:59
great opportunity to create instead of recreate. And so to answer that question,
29:06
even though I think Angela Bassett did a great job for what she was given
29:10
and she did what she needed to do, and I think she made a
29:12
huge impact on this film with having very little to do, I think this
29:18
movie would have benefited from a few less speeches, a little bit more Angela
29:22
Bassett. I can't disagree. And just as a side note, and this
29:27
gets back to the whole thing of the early nineties, late eighties, early
29:33
nineties, there was an obsession with revisiting the sixties. And because I know
29:40
so much about the life of Jim Morrison and the Doors, I'll liken what
29:44
you're talking about to the way Oliver Stone to bring any excuse you know what,
29:52
Yes, that's true. That is my life. I exist between the
29:56
two polar extremes of George lou and Jim Morrison. Figure that one out,
30:02
everybody. But it's a similar sort of thing when you approach a biopic where
30:07
if you really know the guts of everything, you're like, oh, okay,
30:11
you combine these people, you reduce this, you increase your focus on
30:15
that. But specifically about Washington's performance with the speeches, Darren, as he's
30:22
giving these speeches, did you feel the fire like you know, because I
30:27
think Tristan is right to call out that. You know, Malcolm X,
30:30
yes, great orator, tremendous speeches throughout his entire life, and very effective
30:38
in getting a point across even controversial ones. And I want to ask,
30:45
when you watch those speeches did the film did you feel an emotional connection to
30:51
what he was saying. Did you have any aha moments where you felt like
30:56
Lee's point or the point that he felt Malcolm X was trying to make it
31:00
through to you in those moments or were they a lot of sound and fury?
31:04
No? I mean I mentioned before that you know, the the the
31:10
actor playing the policeman who said, oh he's got too much you know,
31:14
powerful one man kind of drove me out because it's such a well known actor
31:18
and just it didn't quite you know, it's like, oh, I'm watching
31:21
a movie. I didn't feel like I was watching a movie when the speeches
31:23
were going. I felt like he was and you know, like you was
31:29
saying, you know, this decade, I think of like High May,
31:33
Escalante, Standard Deliver. I think of like a lot of really good speech
31:37
movies we had in this era of movie dum and Yeah, and Malcolm X
31:42
is no slouch in that. So it I liked the speeches, but it
31:48
was also just educational because I don't I don't know a lot about Meco Mex.
31:52
I don't know his history or I didn't know a lot about you know,
31:56
like the you know, I knew he converted to Islam, and I
31:59
knew he, you know, was a champion of that, but I didn't
32:02
know it was like this group around one man that was a leader of it.
32:08
And to watch that and watch that leader fall, as you know,
32:14
and to see it break Malcolm from you know, because the confidence that Washington's
32:22
portrayal put through of everything he's saying is right, this is from his mouth.
32:28
You know, you're if we just do this, it'll all work out.
32:32
So I think those have to go hand in hand in the story.
32:36
If you're going to present that fall, you have to show his conviction,
32:42
and the conviction is in the speeches. Is how they all come together.
32:45
So yeah, it was his educational It took me, It took me into
32:50
his world kind of like I said in the beginning, just the world,
32:54
nothing outside of that. But but that's not necessarily a bad thing as far
32:59
as this just go. So let me ask you this question, and Tristan,
33:02
I'll throw this to you first, in terms of the turn that Darren
33:07
references here where you know he's in the Nation of Islam, but of course
33:13
we know as we go through his life that he then goes on an actual
33:16
pilgrimage to Mecca and something that is a more global mindset. But do you
33:22
think the film is effective in conveying that turn, because what I thought of
33:30
in that moment let me let me explain to you is there was a specific
33:35
moment in Michael Mann's Ali, the biopic about Muhammad Ali, where he encounters
33:42
Malcolm after Malcolm has had his issues with the Nation of Islam and decided that
33:47
he's he's seeing something larger than himself and larger than the Nation of Islam.
33:52
There, did you get the sense that there was did it adequately convey because
33:59
obviously it's conveying, but it adequately convey to you that Malcolm had discovered something
34:07
larger than the worldview he had. Did the film adequately get you on board
34:13
with the idea that he had changed substantially as a person, you know,
34:17
in that last act, I think it. I think it did a good
34:24
job, but I wish it did a better job, if that makes sense.
34:30
I feel like as a you know, like Darren, there was I
34:34
knew so little about Malcolm X, because you know, growing up in America,
34:38
especially Middle America, we're inundated with Martin Luther King junior information, you
34:45
know, like the holiday is a big day, big sections in school about
34:50
him. I know a lot about Martin Luther King. Knew very little about
34:53
Malcolm X. Although you know, when you talk about Martin Luther King,
34:58
you often hear about Moult about Malcolm X because of they kind of feel like
35:04
they have the same goal in some respects, but yet very different methodology on
35:08
how to go about it. And so it's like two sides of the same
35:12
coin kind of deal. But yet I know way more about heads than I
35:15
do tails. And so when we got to that point when he left the
35:20
Nation of Islam, which is an organization, not just he didn't leave Islam.
35:23
He didn't he didn't stop being a Muslim, He's left the nation of
35:25
Islam. That was news to me. I was like, WHOA, really,
35:31
yeah, there was one hundred percent news to me. And so the
35:35
idea that this man spent twelve years being a mouthpiece for Elijah Muhammad his words,
35:40
not mine. And I want I want to read a quote to you
35:46
that kind of encapsulates a little bit more about his term about his turn that
35:52
I knew nothing about. And that was actually the first part that he's referencing
35:55
was in the movie, but not the second part. So this is a
35:59
quote from Malcolm X. He says, brother, remember that time that white
36:05
girl, that white college girls came into the restaurant, the one who wanted
36:08
to help the black Muslims and the whites get together, And I told her
36:12
there wasn't a ghost of a chance, and she went away crying. Well,
36:15
I've lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent,
36:19
I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot
36:22
of argument. I did many things as a black Muslim that I'm sorry for
36:27
now. I was a zombie then, like all black Muslims. I was
36:30
hypnotized pointed in a certain direction and told to March, well, I guess
36:35
a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the
36:37
cost. It cost me twelve years. That was a bad scene. Brother,
36:42
The sickness and madness of those days. I'm glad to be free of
36:45
them. That is quite a condemnation of how he spent the most influential twelve
36:52
years of his life. And so for twelve years, this is the Malcolm
36:54
X that people quote. For twelve years, this is the Malcom X that
37:00
people remember. We for the movie, it makes sense that you spend a
37:07
big chunk of the film, if not the majority of the film, on
37:09
those twelve years, because that's when he became Malcolm X to the nation.
37:14
However, when the man does such a huge turn in real life but only
37:20
has a year left of that turn, you know, like he didn't,
37:23
you know, like nobody knew that he was going to be like he made
37:27
that He had a press conference I think in sixty four saying that he was
37:30
leaving the Nation of Islam, and then he was assassinated in sixty five.
37:36
Like you can't make like when you when you're spanning a big chunk of his
37:40
life. You can't make the whole movie just about that turn. However,
37:45
if you're going to have a to me, the three and a half hour
37:49
movie felt like a rushed ending because I wanted more Mecca. I wanted more
37:54
of him exploring his faith, the true faith, and I wanted more of
37:59
him in that turn, and I feel like we didn't get it. See
38:02
that's the part where you all the way back at the beginning of this discussion,
38:07
you were talking about the structure of the film and how in that first
38:10
act you would have had him thrown into prison and have flashback of the way
38:15
he was living his life. Yeah, I would have structured the film as
38:20
him in that last year and throwing back to the things he regretted, so
38:25
that I would have it all right. I would have it all framed as
38:31
the last year of his life where he's trying to, in a sense,
38:36
undo the damage that he felt he had done. Because that is one of
38:39
the most fascinating things about having read the autobiography of Malcolm X is getting to
38:46
that point in the book. It is like a sledgehammer to your chest.
38:52
It's absolutely stunning, having like I can't recreate the emotion effect of reading the
39:01
autobiography of Malcolm X. It is one of the most influential books on my
39:07
worldview outside of the Bible that I can possibly give. And that is the
39:15
one thing I will throw at this film is to your point, it's one
39:22
of the criticisms that I've read in this film, and Darren, I'll throw
39:24
this to you to see if you agree. Is that the basically I'm not
39:30
going to read it word for word, but that the read of the person
39:35
and the time in history is very surface level and doesn't carry the appropriate emotional
39:42
weight. And I'm not going to lean all the way into that and agree
39:46
with it completely, but I'm going to ask you do you feel that this
39:52
film, with all of its epic tendencies, truly carries the weight, Like
39:57
did it leave you shell shocked at the end or was it more of a
40:01
history lesson to you? Yeah, it's interesting because I mean I had a
40:10
similar feeling in the end where kind of once we get to that last day.
40:15
I'm not gonna say it's autopilot, It's not quite that rudimentary, but
40:20
it did have a different feel. It did feel like we're running out the
40:22
clock, Like because I'm like the vibe was I don't know where the ending
40:29
is, but I can tell it's soon. And that's a weird thing to
40:34
pick up because it's not like I was told that. But I'm like the
40:37
vibe has shifted. And there were even things in the story where Malcolm is
40:45
saying it's like a time of martyrs. You know, he's speaking that out
40:49
and they're writing to the speaking place, you know, in the cars and
40:55
the way the shots are, the way things are building, especially the Spike
41:01
Lee method of you know him on a dolly where he's kind of out of
41:06
himself. He's not walking, he's just moving forward and has no choice.
41:14
But I also felt the history part where obviously we're talking about his death,
41:21
we're talking about the It's like, if I had to describe this movie in
41:25
three acts, it's Malcolm as we've known him, as the peak of history,
41:31
the change within Islam, and then death, and those are not equal
41:38
pieces of the pie and run time. For sure we get I would I
41:44
agree with you. I think we should have had more after that change,
41:47
because I would have wanted more of the change. But I also wasn't sad
41:53
we got a lot of speech Malcolm, because you need that because of the
42:00
wise when he starts to his worldview, starts to change his it crumbles.
42:06
And I'm actually interested now in reading that autobiography because it wasn't a sledgehammer,
42:12
but I felt that impact because his speech is changed, and when he starts
42:16
to go like, hey, anybody who wants to help, I were open
42:20
to everybody, like we have to versus the you know, the way they
42:23
portrayed it where the white woman on the college campus said like, hey,
42:28
how can we help you? And he's like, you can't like that.
42:31
That door slamming is so impactful. So I'm kind of spiraling in all the
42:36
different points. But all that to say is I think that's where kind of
42:42
circling back to my beginning statement on I think this should have been a mini
42:47
series, and I think that would have given a better balance on the back
42:52
end that we didn't get. Give us the whole front half of speech Malcolm,
42:59
and then make the whole second half the change within Islam, and then
43:05
like a whole episode on the last day. You know, I think that
43:07
pacing would have would fed even more that I wanted to consume. I wanted
43:13
to know that part of his history Tristan same question to you, does the
43:17
film adequately convey sort of that that that emotional impact, that that that you
43:22
know, all the different things that Darren's talking about there, No, I
43:29
feel like I feel like I kind of talked about that earlier. Sure,
43:32
I mean, but but I'm I'm sort of trying to to to get a
43:37
consensus here about everything, because for me, I agree, but there's an
43:43
odd sort of acceptance of it that is odd because this is one of those
43:47
films where I think that the performance of the lead is so incredibly good,
43:52
so charismatic, so compelling, that it glosses over so many any of the
44:00
flaws of the film. Absolutely, And it's stunning because again, Lee isn't
44:07
the one who cast him. He inherits Denzel Washington, and it feels like
44:14
Denzel Washington's performance was inevitable in a way, and since we're a director focused
44:21
podcast, it feels very much like it didn't matter that Lee was the director
44:29
behind the camera. And that is unfortunate because I think that if you really
44:36
look at this with a very critical eye, this is a film where you
44:42
can legitimately look at the performance of an actor, subtract it and say this
44:47
movie is not nearly as good without them. Now, there are plenty of
44:53
films like that. And where I'm building to is that at the Academy Awards
45:00
ceremony for this year, Denzel Washington loses to al Pacino for Scent of a
45:07
Woman, which for many years I have considered a consolation Oscar for Paccino,
45:15
never having won one before that point, and he should have won Best Supporting
45:20
for Ricky Roma the year before, but hey, that's just me. It's
45:24
also a year where Malcolm X the film goes up against Unforgiven, which is
45:30
Clint Eastwood's big time western Pano was Unforgiven? Really nineteen ninety two? Yes
45:39
it was. It went up. Malcolm X was not even nominated for Best
45:45
Picture. Unforgiven was nominated for Best Picture, The Crying Game was nominated a
45:50
few good men, Howard's End, which is a movie I still haven't seen
45:54
because that is just not in my wheelhouse. Guys, I'm gonna be completely
45:59
honest with you, and then Scent of a Woman. Those were up for
46:02
Best Picture, but Malcolm X was not. Now, this is a two
46:07
part question, did this performance here based on what you've seen? Have either
46:13
of you seen Sent of a Woman. Yes, Okay, was Denzel Washington's
46:19
performance here more pivotal to the success of Malcolm X as a film than al
46:23
Pacino's two Scent of a Woman. I don't know if that's the question,
46:30
Okay, I think hmm. I think Denzel Washington did a magnificent job encapsulating
46:40
the character of the real person Malcolm X. Seeing having seen the speeches,
46:45
the real speeches and the fake ones, there were times when I felt like
46:51
I stopped watching Denzel and that's a testament. And I believe he deserved to
46:57
be nominated, and I think he should have easily won. However, having
47:02
seen Sense of the Sense of a Woman only once, just because it was
47:05
on TV, I have seen Sin of a Woman referenced many times because of
47:10
Pacino's performance. Do I think Pacino's performance is better than Denzel Washington's and Malcolm
47:17
X. Not necessarily leaning towards no, However, Pacino's performance in Scent of
47:24
a Woman pierced the zeitgeist more than Denzel's in Malcolm X. And That's what
47:31
I'm gonna say about that, is that that more people talked about Pacino than
47:37
Washington, more people reference Pacino than Washington in reference to this, to these
47:42
two respective movies, and because I feel like Pacino was much more and obviously
47:47
bombastic. It's like, oh, I'm just getting warm. I'm not,
47:52
you know, Like it's just like everybody knows the the Ferrari scene, the
47:57
uh you know, the pseudo courtroom scene at the end, and the tango
48:00
scene. The tango scene. You have these iconic, very cinematic moments,
48:05
and with Malcolm X, you have a real life recreation. And so it's
48:09
it's almost like apples and oranges. Even though Denzel did a phenomenal job,
48:15
Pacino created a character from not from scratch because somebody wrote it. But you
48:20
know what I'm saying, Yeah, getting back to the create versus recreate sense
48:24
that you were talking about, that's fair, that's a fair enough statement.
48:29
And then in terms of Best Picture, did Malcolm X deserve to be in
48:35
the conversation with that? Darren, I'll throw that to you first, right
48:37
because I think probably Tristan is you know, captured what we're all thinking in
48:44
terms of Pacino versus Washington. Did Malcolm X deserve the nomination? I know
48:52
we're all by this point. Look, I'll tell you in ninety two ninety
48:55
three, the Oscars meant something. They mean nothing now, okay, but
49:00
back then they meant something. Was Malcolm X overlooked for Best Picture because we
49:05
know that do the Right Thing was? A lot of people felt that was
49:07
overlooked. Is this the second Spike Lee film overlooked for Best Picture? Especially
49:14
considering the fact that it's in the National Film Registry? Yeah. I mean,
49:17
it's funny because I was going to almost say the opposite with the Oscars,
49:22
of not that they didn't mean anything in the nineties, but I feel
49:27
overall, in general, we put way too much into the Oscars as an
49:30
award as actually representing something for something as objective as film, you know.
49:38
I mean, even at our five star ratings, there are times where we'll
49:44
give things five and the other will give one, and it's you know,
49:49
it's all because of where we were as we absorbed it. And that's the
49:53
beautiful thing about film. It can mean different things to different people, especially
49:59
the three of us versus an entire community. But yeah, I would say
50:05
no, I think in ninety two, I think we should have had more
50:08
slots than five. I think, especially over the one that you mentioned,
50:13
I'd never heard of began with an h, I don't even know what that
50:16
is. Howard z En merchant Ivory was a big thing for about five to
50:21
seven years in there. Yeah, so yeah, No, I think with
50:25
the Best Picture nomination meaning versus Best Director meaning the entire production, the entire
50:36
way this story was pulled together and shown in this biopic, I think you
50:43
could easily have slated it in there. I mean with Denzel losing, maybe
50:49
because he won for Glory only, you know, a scant number of years
50:53
before. So oh, I definitely think that's a factor, because Patino had
50:59
never won, Theino had been up there a number of times, blah blah
51:02
blah, And I honestly believe that scent of a woman was a hey,
51:07
let's give al Pacino the award here, like good enough for an award?
51:12
We could just that. That is because being being somebody who was a big
51:16
fan of Paccino, that always felt like, you know, there were a
51:21
couple of performances before this one where he kind of got robbed, and like
51:24
the oscars always seemed to follow the tendency of like, oh, we kind
51:28
of screwed this person over, is there going to give them an award?
51:31
This year. Sorry guys. Now, the follow up question is I'll throw
51:38
it to you Tristan First. The follow up question is that Roger Ebert and
51:45
Martin Scorsese, who at the time was sitting in on the episode for Gene
51:51
Siskel, who had I believe passed by this point, they both ranked Malcolm
51:55
X among the ten best films of the nineteen nineties. Tristan, would you
52:01
rank Malcolm X among the ten best films in the nineteen nineties? Wit?
52:06
When did they vote? This? Was it in ninety two, before the
52:08
decade had happened, or in nineteen ninety nine at the end of the tricks
52:14
came out. I'm just at the I don't know where. I don't know
52:16
what was in there and the rest of the list or whatever. But they
52:21
ranked Malcolm X in among the ten best films of the nineteen nineties? Does
52:25
it belong there? Here is a list of movies that came out in the
52:30
nineties. This is just a list. I'm not saying these are the top
52:34
ten. I'm saying this is a list. You have an indecent proposal,
52:37
Independence Day, The Game Awakening, Schindler's List, The Truman Show, mitcho
52:43
Black, Ghost, Talented Mister Ripley, Virgin Suicides, Romeo and Juliet Eyes,
52:49
White Shot, Goodwill, Hunting Speed, The Bodyguard, A Few Good
52:52
Men, Shawshank Bone, Collector of n Horizon, Goodfella's Happy, Gilmour,
52:55
The Blair Witch Project, Twister, Missus, Doubtfire, Stuart Falling Down,
53:00
Green, Miles, Stargate, Liar, Liar, American Beauty Underseege, Silence
53:05
of the Lambs, Girl Interrupted, A Time to Kill Matrix, seven Years
53:07
in Tibet, The Sixth Sense, Gattica, Forrest Gump, Clueless, American
53:12
Pie, English Patients Seven, Mercury Rising, Chunk King Express, and Men
53:16
in Black. No, okay, fair enough, I dared, I think
53:22
you'd probably agree with Twistan on that one. I mean, oh and fight
53:28
Club seven. Oh listen, fight Club, fight Club and seven. Those
53:31
are two slots right there. Okay, that's let's be honest, Saving Private
53:36
Ryan, Prettyoys, Boys in the Hood, Fargo Election, waiting to exhale.
53:43
Uh, let's see, let's say Selena Joy Like Doors, Jurassic Park,
53:51
usual Suspects, big Lebowski, Groundhog Day, League of their Own Causehler's
53:54
List, Men in Black, I SAIDs list, How Stellar got our group?
53:59
Fact Jerry McGuire set it off, The Fugitive Scream, Goodfellas, Hope
54:04
Dreams, Titanic, something about Mary Toy Story, Louise and yeah, yeah,
54:13
Hoop Dreams. Oh my goodness, that's an amazing film anyway. So
54:17
you know, basically, it feels like, you know, Tristan's encapsulation of
54:21
whether he would rank it in the top ten films of the nineteen nineties feels
54:24
like a good excuse for us to come to our own personal ratings and wrapping
54:30
things up. And Darren, because I love to torture you, I'm going
54:32
to throw it to you first. What out of this scale of five stars
54:38
would you rank? You know, how many stars would you give Malcolm X,
54:45
the dream project of Spike Lee, who we saw direct do the right
54:50
thing? This is our second film in the house of Lee. How many
54:52
stars would you give Malcolm X. So I'm going to give it a four
55:00
because of Denzel, which I know it's a director's discussion podcast, but at
55:06
the end I have to judge the entire movie. I think Denzel brings it
55:09
to a four for me. I think, you know, you throw on
55:15
words like definitive, like I can't really see someone else making a biopic of
55:21
this level and reaching the same heights of a nineteen ninety two movie. It
55:25
was the right time, it was the right person, it was the right
55:28
cast, you know, pulling all of this together. Maybe if they come
55:31
back with, oh like you on this name his son Washington, I think,
55:38
bring his son back and do the miniseries. Yeah, I think that
55:44
would have been maybe to come back to this. But yeah, I think
55:50
it educates. It teaches you history, It talks about this man's life.
55:54
It takes you on a journey. Are their flaws, yes, is there
55:59
is their pay seeing in their run time. But really, at the end
56:02
of the day, this is a great film. I could see why it's
56:07
on many people's top list. I can see why it has a Criterion collection.
56:10
I maybe don't agree with Ebert and Scarsese, but I think, yeah,
56:17
I'm gonna give it a four. Also, I mean, I try
56:21
not to compare it to other Spike Lee, but I've only ether seen the
56:25
other one in this order of do the right thing, and I feel it's
56:29
better. I feel he's this is only three years later. You know,
56:32
we didn't talk about that. But going from eighty nine to ninety three or
56:37
ninety two, sorry, ninety two. It's only three years, so Lee
56:42
has grown Lee. You know, we talked a bit about was he the
56:46
right pick for this? And it I can kind of see the executives being
56:51
like, I don't know, because you're like, you know, they're not
56:53
throwing a huge butt at him, but like this has to especially with the
56:58
conflict around the director at the beginn it needed to pan out, and I
57:01
think it did. I think he did a great job, Like I also
57:06
mentioned, you know, kind of tamping down the surrealist look of some that
57:12
do the right thing had, but that was a very different movie than that.
57:15
It's not like that's his style, and he has to have those Dutch
57:19
angles and you know, breaking the fourth wall, Like I don't want Malcolm
57:23
X's to break the fourth wall. He's already looking right at me as he's
57:27
given those speeches. So I think that could have been too much. But
57:30
now I will give it a solid, solid four. That's fair. Now,
57:36
as a follow up question, where would you cast Lance Reddick in this
57:42
good Fred Lance, even though he did such a great role or such a
57:47
great job in this role, I kind of want him to be Delroy's character.
57:53
Of West Indian Archie. It's so it's like a pocket roll, which
57:59
I think we're it's great for Lance where it's like a little teeny bit.
58:02
And you know, Delroy was intimidating. He's a large individual. He towers
58:09
over you like you can tell you don't want to cross him. But Lance
58:14
giving his like deadpan cool as ice delivery. I would be terrified to cross
58:22
him if he was a gangster. Terrified. I will go into my own
58:28
rating and I will start with Lance Reddick, and I will say that is
58:31
exactly who I cast as Lance Reddick was was West Indian Archie. I think
58:37
that he would have been incredibly effective because of his height and because of his
58:42
speech patterns. He would have been extremely terrifying. In the moment where he
58:47
is coming for Malcolm's blood. That would have absolutely unsettled me and probably been
58:57
even more tense than you know what happens when Delroy Lindo walks in and he's
59:02
like, never sit with your back to the door. You know, I'm
59:06
here for all of these sorts of things, like I completely would have put
59:12
Lance Reddick in there. I am also going to because of my and I
59:16
will cop to a nostalgic factor that goes into this, But I think that
59:22
I don't particularly care for the way that Lee finishes the film. The coda
59:30
structure doesn't particularly work here. I get what he was going for, but
59:37
again it feels like, Hi, you just watched three and a half hours
59:40
of film. I'm going to tell you how you should think about this,
59:43
and it's like, just let the work speak for itself, please, I
59:50
just I naturally recoil it stuff like that. I think that also the movie
59:54
struggles a little bit with whether there should be a voiceover for Malcolm X through
59:59
it or not. That's an element that's a little weird and not handled completely
1:00:06
appropriately. So I wind up giving it a four point five four and a
1:00:10
half stars. It's in my heart it's a five, but I have to
1:00:15
acknowledge the flaws with it, and I do give half stars, So it's
1:00:19
four and a half for me, Tristan to round us out, where do
1:00:22
you see Lance Reddick? And how many stars do you give Malcolm X.
1:00:28
I think this is the first film since we've started the Lance Reddick piece where
1:00:32
we've all agreed the moment, the moment, yes that Delroy Lindo came on
1:00:38
with West Indian Archie. I was like, this, this is lance Redick.
1:00:44
Even though and Darren you said this, Delroy Lindo completely killed it in
1:00:51
this Yes he did. And I firmly believe that every movie is better with
1:00:55
Delroy Lindo than without Delroy Lindo. That is a damn fact. That is
1:01:01
one hundred percent truth. Yes, But for all the reasons that you guys
1:01:06
said, lance Reddi would have killed it too. I appreciate this movie,
1:01:13
and I prefaced it at the beginning talking about how who the hell am I?
1:01:16
You know, it's in the National Film Registry, It's on a lot
1:01:21
of top ten lists, a top one hundred lists, and everything like that.
1:01:27
This is this movie struck a chord. It's got a Criterion edition,
1:01:32
speaking of which, I got the four K Criterion just to watch this,
1:01:37
and I'm glad I did because it looks beautiful. But for all the reasons
1:01:40
that I said, I have a lot of issues with this movie. I
1:01:44
don't think it's structured well. I don't think it's paced well. I think
1:01:46
they should have focused more on creation, not just recreation. And I wanted
1:01:52
to see more of Mecca. I wanted to see more of his Turn.
1:01:55
I wanted to see more of that, and I feel like that's a huge
1:01:59
knock against it. I wanted to see more of I wanted to see more
1:02:02
of Betty and I. It's just, you know, it's it's hard because
1:02:07
this movie is a good movie. It's a good movie. This is just
1:02:12
my rating of it. I give it three stars because there's a few things
1:02:16
that really pissed me off. And you know, I've already talked about.
1:02:20
One thing that I haven't talked about is that the character of Baines, played
1:02:24
by the amazing actor Albert Hall, isn't real. That really really bugs me.
1:02:30
The idea that they used a composite character to show this man come to
1:02:37
Islam, which was the true love of his life. Honestly, when he
1:02:42
became a Muslim, this defined this person in real life. Malcolm X is
1:02:49
a Muslim through and through. He is you know, he is devout in
1:02:53
the faith of Sunni Islam, devout. This is the reason why we're talking
1:03:00
about him today is because he was a Muslim. And the idea that you
1:03:06
took away the fact of his true conversion by making a composite character to make
1:03:15
it, in his opinion, more cinematic instead of allowing his brother and sister's
1:03:20
letters of love, kindness and understanding in faith bring him to that love,
1:03:25
kindness and understanding in faith is a huge betrayal to the character and something that
1:03:30
really pissed me off. And you know, some people may be saying I'm
1:03:34
overreacting. I don't think I am, but that's okay. I try to
1:03:37
qualify my statements as much as possible, considering the sensitive the many sensitive topics
1:03:43
that we've talked about tonight. But that's too much for me. That's too
1:03:47
much for me to give it four or five stars. I'm giving this three
1:03:50
stars knowing that I'm in the minority and that this film struck a chord and
1:03:54
it's not like it's poorly made. And I appreciate Spike Lee for sticking to
1:03:59
his guns and giving the vision of what he wanted to give. But for
1:04:02
me, that's my rating fair enough. I think that this is very interesting
1:04:08
because of the way, you know, Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X
1:04:11
are two very important films in terms of film history. I mean, Spike
1:04:15
Lee has made a splash. Next week, though we're going toward a film
1:04:20
that hasn't necessarily had the same impact as Do the Right Thing or Malcolm X
1:04:27
and Darren. What is it that we're going to be looking at here on
1:04:29
house Lights? Next week we're jumping ten years from nineteen ninety two to two
1:04:35
with twenty fifth hour, Here On house Lights, Join the Revolution, Join
1:04:41
the net polta