Review: Malcolm X Symposium: By Any Means Necessary
Reviewed Work(s): Malcolm X by Spike Lee
Review by: John Locke, Manning Marable, Jacquie Jones, Herb Boyd, Todd Boyd, Bell
Hooks, Dan Georgakas, Julius Lester and Jesse Rhines
Source: Cinéaste, Vol. 19, No. 4 (1993), pp. 4-18
Published by: Cineaste Publishers, Inc.
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41687237
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SYItlPOSIUHH
the response was
in which Hollywood has given epic
treatment
to an
African-American
Spike treatment
in which Lee's Hollywood Malcolm
to an African-American
X is has the given first epic film
remarkably
leader. Not surprisingly« from its inception the film has generated controversy.
as
to be
as
to
Lee used racial considerations to win con-
for
trol of the material from projected white
directors only to find himself immediately
besieged by some African-Americans who
felt he was inadequate to the task. As Mal-
be
a
Lee
a
for plac-
stress on themes person-
colm X was in production it was sur- style
rounded by rumors that its content might
for younger people a
provoke either white or black audiences crossover
As often the case
(perhaps both) to violence. Further questions developed over its length and
Leetne
s work, tne subject he chose to address
baseball cap does not mean very much in
conditions that forced Lee to go tohas
promiproven more stimulating than his
and of itself, but Spike Lee can rightfully
nent African-Americans for funds to
treatment of that subject. The commentaclaim major responsibility for the mushtors we have asked to evaluate Malcolm X
complete the film on his own terms.
rooming of books about Malcolm X and
Given this buildup, when Malcolm have
X
generally neither loved nor hated the
the skyrocketing sales of Malcolm X's own
finally appeared on the nation's screens,
film. Consequently, most of their essays
writings. Pathfinder Press, the major pubarm away rrom tne
lisher of Malcolm's speeches and interviews, for example, reports that its Mal1
•
/V
i*
.1
what has been omit-
colm titles which sold some ten thousand
ted from Lee's portrait copies annually in the Seventies now sell
of Malcolm X and
more than a hundred thousand copies
how the film reflects
annually, a tenfold increase.
various cinematic and
In some respects, Spike Lee is the vicpolitical problematics. tim of his own success. A few years ago to
Despite this essen- have Malcolm X presented on the screen
tially negative or as a positive role model would have been
ambivalent response, unthinkable, to have that film made with
our contributors show
major studio financing a daydream. Hol-
considerable respect lywood's involvement, of course, always
for the fact that Lee
was able to make such
a film at all. Malcolm
X is not the sort of
what restraints the studios will insist on
person Hollywood
when they inevitably turn their attentions
bio-pics normally
celebrate. Lee's renowned talent for
means a myriad of conditions and a phobia of offending one or another real or
imagined publics. We can only speculate
to Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriet Tubman, or Arthur Ashe. That such films
would even be contemplated, however,
publicity has definiteindicates how dramatically Spike Lee has
ly placed Malcolmexpanded
X
the cinematic horizons of Holon the popular culture
lywood.
map. Yes, the 4X' on a
a of what various ted how ambivalent our film politcal tialy considerable a was for cel brate. bio-pics on person X publicty ly nowned map. Despite film is placed the from Malcolm contributors the able per the not Yes, has at po ular cinematic negative se fact problematics. to Le 's film has al. Holywo d the be n Malcolm the this talent o make normaly Le 's response, that Malcolm examine definte- 4X' port ait sort respect reflects X culture s en- omit- show such on and and Le for e- or of X a
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burned down by the racist Black Legion,
father murdered, mother driven insane.
The film covers these events in flashback,
however, relegating them to memory. In
the film's present, the adolescent Malcolm
seems to be having a pretty good time,
despite his involvement in various crimi-
order to subvert his salvation by the elitist
NOI? (As a preacher, he disparages his
past dating of white women, but whether
that expresses some poignancy in addition
to parroting NOI teachings is unclear.) As
their relationship ends, Malcolm notes
that the white judge inflated his burglary
nal activities, so the causality between past sentence to punish him for consorting
experience and present behavior, carefiilly with white women, completely shifting
explained in the autobiography, is the import of the relationship from interunclear.
nal to external, from Malcolm's psyche to
Putting it another way, the film distin- the injustice of the legal system.
The mystique of the gun weaves theguishes injuries inflicted by others and
those which are self-imposed. One speaks matically through the film. The occasional
to circumstance, the other to character. punctuation of gunshots on the soundLee depicts with clarity the horrors of track - as when Malcolm and Shorty play
racism that were beyond Malcolm's con- cops and robbers - ring out Malcolm's
trol, but he minimizes what Malcolm por- destiny, elevating his death by gunshot
trays in the autobiography as self-degra- from circumstance to inevitability. The
dation, the acts of an animal. We know theme counterpoints the tired association
Malcolm Monks' his hair 'to be white;' we of Malcolm X with violence. We discover
see him acting comically hip in public. throughout the film that, despite MalMore serious issues of drug addiction and colm's reputation and defiant rhetoric, he
criminal behavior are glamorized. In the was far more scholarly than violent. But
centerpiece drug scene, West Indian while dispelling one myth, the film falls
Archie introduces Malcolm to cocaine,
back on Hollywood stereotypes that cast
but the feel is festive, not ominous. We the gun as a symbol of power and mannever see Malcolm getting high in order hood. It begins with Malcolm's father
who fires his pistol over the heads of the
to face his sordid occupations. Lee
dampers the gravity of crime by playing men who have torched his house, prothe burglary racket for amusement, asclaiming, "I'm a man!" Malcolm receives
when Malcolm perilously slides a ring his first gun in a solemn rite of passage
is The Autobiography of Malcolm X,
from his sleeping victim's finger. When from Archie. The gift of the weapon At a is the The story
a story
core Autobiography
that draws from
of thattheSpike draws Lee's of Malcolm Malcolm from the X, X
breadth of twentieth century Africanthe gang members are sentenced for theirArchie's first, as well - bestows the power
crimes, Malcolm warms up the scene with accruing from Archie's trust and guidAmerican experience. Like any narrative
chuckles and Shorty delivers the punch- ance. Later, Malcolm takes control of the
contemporaneous with a past era, the
line when he mistakes concurrent for con- burglary ring by bluffing his rival in Russautobiography contains elements that
secutive sentences. While entertaining, theian roulette. After the matter is resolved,
most moviegoers today would find antilight treatment of Malcolm's purported and tension relieved, Sophia whispers to
quated or irrelevant. From the outset,
sins undermines his future role as a man
Malcolm, "I love you," further endowing
then, Lee's intent to tell history is at odds
returned from the brink.
with the needs of a mass market, and the
the gun with the powers of masculinity.
film's transformation of Malcolm X to
In the autobiography, Malcolm's white Rather than highlighting Malcolm's fall
meet contemporary expectations has sig-girlfriend, Sophia, represents his repudia- from civility, as the autobiography pornificant consequences for historical accu-tion of blackness through his desire for trays this part of his life, these scenes serve
whiteness, a manifestation of self-hatred. the more conventional purpose of boostracy and dramatic impact.
The story is fundamentally tripartite inThat she was a status symbol proved the ing the heroic stature of the role. It is not
structure: a man leads an aimless, self- disease was endemic among his peers. In until the assassination itself that the veil of
destructive life; he experiences enlighten-Malcolm's view, Sophia, too, acts from glamor falls from the gun and the prior
ment; he is redeemed. Since enlighten- psychologically suspect motives, to the ill-use of the theme becomes apparent.
ment occurs nearer the middle of the
point of enduring his beatings. But We see gunplay in all its ugliness as Malstory than the end, Malcolm's prison con-excepting a brief exchange in which Mal- colm is mutilated by the bullets tearing
version to the Nation of Islam (NOI)
colm expresses mistrust of her intentions, through his body.
The errant poetry of moonlit Klansbecomes the fulcrum on which the story the film omits the complexities of their
teeters. Before prison, he is Malcolm Lit- relationship, relieving Sophia of all but men on horseback and the other mythic
images from Malcolm's childhood don't
tle, humiliated beyond his comprehension her color. Had the film been made in
register his terror enough to establish a
by a racially prejudiced society; after Malcolm's day, scenes of affection
basis for the anger that will eventually
prison, he becomes Malcolm X, with the between an interracial couple would have
burst forth, and what power they do conprerogatives of indignation as the impetus shocked the audience. Today, with the
tain is nullified by his guns-and-fiin adoto his claim on spiritual confession and taboo diminished, the mere depiction of
For too long a period, he seems
the otherwise cordial relationship fails aslescence.
a
political discourse.
For Malcolm's life to make sense in the symbol of his debasement. The meaningto have broken the continuum of adversity and put the past behind him. What
film, his post-enlightenment anger must of the scenes is cloudy.
Is the film demonstrating a problemremains is a kind of romantic victimizabe evenly balanced - justified - by the
ABAPTING THE
SSSSnEiL
hJtfilKta
cruelties of his earlier years. Indeed, his that Malcolm will have to overcome; is ittion that protects Malcolm's image from
the ravages of true degradation. We're
childhood is sufficiently traumatic - fami- establishing his rebelliousness; or is it
told
of his suffering but we don't have to
praising
his
natural
egalitarianism
in
ly harassed by the Ku Klux Klan, house
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see it. Conked hair and a white girlfriend
stand in as philosophical surrogates for
true pain. Lee grants Malcolm 'star quality' when the drama requires he forgo his
dignity, making him special when perhaps
he should be pathetically ordinary.
Rather than challenging us to oppose
suffering, the glamorization of Malcolm
tempts us to covet his suffering as a means
toward a fabled existence. To compensate
for the dearth of provocations, the film
later attempts to connect Malcolm's anger
with his past by having him (and others)
refer to the degradations caused by his
drug abuse, his pimping (which we never
see), or his thievery. At one point, Baines
tices constituted much of his preaching as underpinning the NOI's concept of evil,
a minister in the organization. As in the further distancing Malcolm from the 'reliscenes prior to Malcolm's incarceration, gion' of the NOI. It implies his weak conLee cautiously chooses what to associate viction for the NOI's counter-prejudice,
with Malcolm. Most of the NOI's more
thus preparing him for the idealistic high
curious concepts, which include theground in his later break with the organimachinations of mad scientists in the
zation. Taken with the downplay of Malshaping of history, and which Malcolm
colm's (and the NOI's) disparagement of
discusses freely in his autobiography, women
are
and Jews by class, the overall softomitted from Malcolm's dialog. Lee does
ening of his rhetoric increases the chance
acknowledge this aspect of the NOI, howthat a contemporary film audience, drawn
ever, through the words of Baines and Elifrom diverse quarters, will find Malcolm
jah Muhammad, men who will later disappealing.
credit themselves - and thus their
Malcolm X's departure from the NOI
views - by betraying Malcolm. Forand
examits aftermath shaped the last year and
ple, Baines explains to Malcolm that
pork
a half
of his life, a fittingly dramatic crisis
asks Malcolm to consider whether he has
should not be eaten because the pig
is "a
and conclusion
for the story. Superficially,
ever met any whites who weren't evil.
filthy beast, part cat, part rat, and Malcolm's
the restconfirmation of rumors about
Malcolm's apparently confirming is dog," even though it's Malcolm'sMuslim
obser-leader Elijah Muhammad's illethoughts are represented by quick flash-vation in the autobiography. In general,
gitimate children and Malcolm's tactless
backs of white faces, some of whom,
remarks about JFK's assassination caused
the film burdens others with the peculiariincluding Sophia, have been favorably ties of the NOI and leaves Malcolm with
the schism. But whether Malcolm 'quit' or
portrayed. Such techniques retroactively the universal messages of pride and self- was 'fired' is beside the point. The NOI
make his youth seem more damaging discipline, though in reality Malcolm cov-had developed twin summits of power than actually shown. Pain is reduced to a ered the spectrum.
Elijah Muhammad, the center of religious
debating point.
Those who know almost nothing aboutauthority, and Malcolm X, the center of
In prison, with Malcolm's rebirth Malcolm X probably know that he
attention. Eventually one had to give way.
The source of the fissure can be traced to
looming, the film attempts to make up for described Caucasians as "white devils."
Malcolm's mind, a division between his
lost time by putting Malcolm through the The oft-used term was one of the most
hell of solitary confinement in a bare, biting expressions in his oratory. More religious and political selves. He began as
unlit cell. His life instantly hits bottom than invective, though, the idea that alla preacher but his grass roots recruiting
where the perfunctory conversion to the whites are devils is fundamental to Musand lightning rod eloquence drew in
NOI can raise him back up. At this point, lim doctrine. It rationalizes the plight of many followers and the implied threat of
Malcolm X replaces Malcolm Little and African-Americans and justifies sepa- a personal constituency. The division in
the NOI becomes his focus.
ratism. Since it became so strongly identi- his mind widened into a division in the
Despite its name, the Nation of Islam fied with Malcolm X, it's interesting to see organization. The threat might have
is an American original and borrows little how Lee employs the term. In fact, Mal- remained benign had not his maturation
from true Islam. Its beliefs encompass an colm says "white devils" only once in the as a leader within the NOI coincided with
invented history of the races and the goal film, in a narrated letter from prison that, the most volatile years of the civil rights
of self-sufficiency for African-Americans in other ways, amusingly demonstrates movement. While the NOI, and loyal
including, most abstractly, a separate Malcolm's naiveté as a fresh convert.
Malcolm, eschewed political activity (calls
black nation. Malcolm's thorough Afterwards we hear the term only from
for an unspecified black state notwithembrace of the Muslim beliefs and prac- other Muslims. Malcolm does refer to
standing), the eyes of black America
devils a tew
times - "the
increasingly looked to Washington for
justice. Malcolm's affiliation with the NOI
threatened to render him irrelevant as an
devil's newspaper," "the devil's
African-American spokesman. The times
chickens" (compressured him to make the difficult choice
ing home to
between his religious and political inclina-
roost) - but the tions. It was his personal dilemma; it
closest he comes
becomes the film's critical issue. If Mal-
to using the term colm X is to claim contemporary releas a Muslim leadvance, it cannot relegate its hero to a his-
er is in response torical sideshow.
to a reporter's
question, "I've
Malcolm's second conversion, to true
Islam, resulting from a pilgrimage to
said white people Mecca, pulls the issue in two directions at
are devils," the
once. It affirms his identity as a religious
past tense leaving figure; it also allows him to forge an iden-
his current views
tity apart from the NOI and seek a secular
ambiguous.
By separating
political role. From a religious perspective, a second conversion begs a peculiar
question: If God reveals His truth a second time, was He lying the first? What
the "white" from
the "devil," Lee
removes the racial
philosophy
Delroy Lindo as West Indian Archie with Denzel Washington in Malcolm
X
'was' the vision of Elijah Muhammad,
animated and speaking, that brings Mal-
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Lee's Malcolm X does no better as his-
tory than the autobiography, but refines
the book's agenda for a modern audience
needing contemporary relevance and
streamlined heroes. The Malcolm X of the
film is less self-conscious, less square,
more romantic, less dogmatic, and less
divisive than the autobiographical Mal-
colm X. Near the end of the film, American and South African schoolchildren
jump up from their desks to cry, "I am
Malcolm X!," and we know they speak of
the latter ecumenical man and not the
Muslim separatist who came before. The
film has forgiven and forgotten the hostile
rhetoric of Malcolm's past as his America
would not.
Then the film goes on to suggest a new
transformation. As Malcolm's visit to the
Al Freeman, Jr. as Elijah Muhammad counsels Malcolm X (Denzel Washington) in Malcolm X.
colm to his knees for the first time? No
drama of the conclusion. That Malcolm
deteriorated, once proud Archie hinted at
what an unrepentant Malcolm would
have become, so does the appearance of
Nelson Mandela, perhaps the world's
such supernaturalism lifts the hajj abovewas murdered by black men is anticlimacmost respected black leader, propose what
ritual. As shown, the principal change to tic to his movement toward a higher
Malcolm would have become had he lived
Malcolm is a broadening of his outlook to political consciousness. He had been a
to this day. Through the conceit of giving
soldier on the battle lines of race but in
recognize the fundamental equality of
Mandela Malcolm's words rather than let-
people. Now the seeds planted by the ear-the end was killed by his own kind. His
ting him speak his own, Mandela becomes
lier presentation of Malcolm bear fruit. demise fails as an opportunity to validate
the film's living embodiment of Malcolm
Though acknowledged as a full partici-his threat to entrenched white power, his
X, a last-ditch effort to rescue Malcolm
pant in the NOI, the film never fully dra- longstanding pessimism toward racial
from history.
matized his participation. Malcolm may relations, or his status as spokesman for
have outgrown the absurdities of the NOI the race. Lee seems to recognize this
but the film never rooted him in them. He because he takes a number of steps to
never preaches the NOI version of racial invite the possibility that (white) agents of
history, the theory of white devils, or any the government sponsored the assassina-
MALCOLM
number of extreme views (although he tion. A pair of CIA agents trail him in
does advocate separatism in one speech). Egypt; we see images of rolling tape
Moreover, the film suppresses the wide recorders, a 'bug' in a lamp shade, FBI
differences between the NOI and true
agents listening to his phone calls; Malcolm himself blames "larger forces" for
Islam. By softening the NOI and by further softening Malcolm's commitment the
to firebombing of his house, after first
blaming the Muslims; he speaks of, but
its philosophy, Lee 'politicizes' the second
h Manin Umile
never specifies, a harassment beyond the
conversion by reducing it from a sweepNOrs capabilities. None of these facts
ing exchange of religions to a more palatprove the authorities had Malcolm killed question which can be raised by the
able maturation of opinion, a maturation
In questionoppressed
oppressedis thea racist
issue which
of identity.
society, is the can the issue be most raised of profound identity. by the
but the implication further raises his viathat moves him away from an exclusively
'Who am I, and how can I act on behalf of
bility as a civil rights leader - it sanctions
religious perspective and towards the
myself?' It is this quest for critical selfhim with the government's fear; it makes
mainstream of the civil rights movement.
The film allows Malcolm to be seen as
consciousness which explains, in part, the
him look too dangerous to live.
continuing fascination by younger
The autobiography chronicles a series
having represented the good in the NOI,
African-Americans with the charismatic
of transformations to the character of
but an impractical good given the conMalcolm
X
but,
in
true
self-reflexive
literand controversial figure of Malcolm X.
straints; the separation from the NOI frees
According to a November 1992 Newsweek
ary fashion, is itself another transformahim to practice the good while absolving
him of a bad he never seemed to believetion,
in
an attempt to redefine the past topoll conducted by the Gallup Organizajustify a current posture. Bruce Perry'stion, fifty-seven percent of all Africananyway.
When Malcolm left the NOI, he
Americans polled agreed with the statewell-researched recent biography, Mal-
ASMggAH:
ment that Malcolm X should be
colm: The Life of a Man Who Changed
entered a political limbo between the
considered "a hero for black Americans
Black America , assembles a more complete
organization he could not return to and
account
of
his
life.
It
becomes
clear
from
today." Malcolm X's greatest popularity
the civil rights movement he could hardly
this version that the autobiography is partwas'found among African-Americans
step into after years of denouncing its
between the ages of fifteen to twenty-four,
religious testament (to the virtues of the
proponents. His untimely death resolves
with eighty-four percent of those polled
Muslim life) and part political tract
his life ambiguously, leaving open forever
(speaking out as an African-Americanagreeing with the statement. When asked
the question of what he might ultimately
the reasons for Malcolm's popularity,
Everyman), while its historical aspects
have accomplished, and freeing the film
blacks eschewed complex ideological
have been transmuted for the purposes of
to define his potential.
The assassination itself blunts the
explanations or theoretical excursions
the broader agenda.
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into the history of black nationalism.
Eighty- four percent replied that Malcolm
X stood for "blacks helping one another;"
eighty-two percent responded that the
black leader symbolized a "strong black
male," with another seventy- four percent
indicating that he represented "black selfdiscipline." With the vast social destruction of our central cities today, with twen-
ty-three percent of all African-American
males between the ages of twenty and
twenty-nine currently in prison, on probation, parole, or awaiting a trial, Malcolm X personifies the ability of an individual to overcome the worst circum-
Al Freeman, Jr. and Angela Bassett are inside the Nation of Islam. The FBI also
also excellent in portraying Malcolm's attempted to recruit Malcolm himself to
mentor Elijah Muhammad, spiritual god-betray Elijah Muhammad's organization
father of the Nation of Islam, and Mal- by the late 1950s, years prior to the evencolm's wife, Betty Shabazz, respectively. tual split. Scholars have known for years
Freeman successfully portrays the actual about all of this police state style surveilautocratic style of the Black Muslim patri- lance and illegal disruption by authorities.
arch, illustrating his paternalistic compas-Why does Lee treat this as a minor
sion and his private hypocrisy. Bassett's episode, leaving viewers with the distinct
role is decisive in providing the story with impression that the FBI was at best
a central love interest which shows that a
peripheral to Malcolm's assassination?
strong black woman was able to openThe wiretapping scenes in the film's final
minutes should have begun before the
movie was more than halfway finished.
The filmmaker's goal Most of the assaults aimed against Mal-
stances to achieve personal integrity and
leadership.
It is in this larger social context that
Spike Lee's magnificent yet profoundly
was to create a
flawed film Malcolm X must be under-
colm X could have been planned by the
FBI or other governmental authorities,
and loyalists to Elijah Muhammad's Black
Muslims could have easily been manipulated to carry out the state's hatred and
coltoral icoo, bot thefear of the black nationalist leader.
stood. The massive political and financial
controversies in making the film have
black commooity
been well-documented. From the beginning, Lee planned a synthesis of recent
Lee claims to have conducted extensive
research in the construction of his screen-
play; the film indicates otherwise. The sto-
does not need myths.ryline is essentially an adaptation of Alex
black social history with the sweeping cin-
ematic style of David Lean's Lawrence of
Arabia. Warner Bros, had agreed to
It desperately
finance a two hour fifteen minute film at a
price of $20 million. Lee wanted an epic-
requires practical
budget, the director appealed successfully
solotlons to its
to black celebrities such as Oprah Winsized, three hour plus film at a cost
exceeding $33 million. Going way over
Haley's classic text, The Autobiography of
Malcolm X. The strengths of Haley's work
are its powerful narrative, the moving
descriptions of Malcolm's profound
epiphanies, the faithful reconstruction of
Malcolm's voice, his ambiguities, and
intensely attractive human personality.
Many of these elements are apparent in
frey, Bill Cosby, and Michael Jordan to
Lee's approach. But there are deep probfinance his shortfall. Throughout the
lems within The Autobiography which Lee
filming, black critics such as prominent
failed to comprehend. The book is a narplaywright/poet Amiri Baraka charged
Malcolm's innocent eyes to the truthrative biography, related piecemeal fashthat Lee was certainly the wrong personwhich
to
surrounded him. The film managesion from Malcolm to Alex Haley over a
to show the enormous accomplishments period of several years. Most of the interbe charged with the political responsibility
ofathe black nationalist Nation of Islam for interpreting the life and times of
views were given to Haley in the early
major black figure for a mass audience.
pulling thousands of drug dealers, prosti1960s, well before Malcolm X had become
Many black activists feared that Lee would
tutes, and criminals off the streets, prodisillusioned with Elijah Muhammad and
focus too heavily on Malcolm X's previding moral guidance and self-respect,the Nation of Islam. Throughout this
Nation of Islam career as 'Detroit Red,'
and giving people denied opportunity atime, Malcolm was a bitter critic of Marstreet hustler and cocaine user, at thebelief in themselves as capable and pro-tin Luther King, Jr., his political philosoexpense of a solid political analysis ductive
of
members of society. The core idephy of nonviolence, and the civil rights
establishment. Few interviews were incorMalcolm's ideological and personal evoluology of the Nation - the 'whites are devtion as a leader.
ils' thesis - was always secondary to itsporated into The Autobiography which
The final product of Lee's labors and constructive and positive contributionsreflected Malcolm's experiences after
shameless self-promotion, Malcolm X, is toward black working class and lowMarch 1964, when his entire political ideology had become radicalized.
simultaneously a triumph of filmmaking,income people.
and a justification of Baraka's fears and
But the film also falls far short in many The Autobiography and Lee's film, for
frustrations. The film's major strengthssignificant ways. Lee would have usexample, suggest that it was Malcolm's
begin with the truly outstanding perfor-believe that the Federal Bureau of Investi1964 hajj to Mecca which opened his eyes
mance of Denzel Washington as Malcolm gation began to monitor Malcolm's politi-to the fundamental humanity of all people
X. Washington's detailed preparation forcal activities sometime during his final,beyond the limitations of race, and that
the role was quite remarkable - mimick-chaotic months of travel, reflection, andthis final epiphany via the universalism of
ing Malcolm's speaking style, even his political struggle. Actually, the FBI beganIslam was the basis of Malcolm's newtendency to place his right hand thought-its systematic surveillance of Malcolm Xfound tolerance and cooperative spirit.
fully against his face, with two extendedmore than ten years earlier, long before heNo'one doubts that Malcolm's journey to
fingers. Malcolm's actual words are care- had become a national figure. Malcolm's Mecca and throughout the Middle East
fully woven into the dialog. Washingtontelephone was wiretapped illegally; hishad a profound impact upon his worldgives us a very emotional and powerful mail was monitored; his movements wereview and political behavior. But I would
depiction of a street hustler who goes carefully charted and followed. The Newsuggest that the ideological limitations of
through a series of moral and spiritual York City police placed double agents,both Haley and Lee keep their interpretaconversion experiences.
including Malcolm's own bodyguard, tions of Malcolm located on safe, religious
pressing problems.
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grounds rather than on the more danger-
ous terrain of race and class struggle.
Haley was a longtime Republican, and a
twenty year veteran of the U.S. Coast
Guard. Lee is primarily a product of the
post-civil rights era black middle class,
who never directly participated in the
massive black protest movements of the
public forums on public issues, the civil
rights movement and even foreign-policy - something completely alien to Elijah
Muhammad. Muhammad's brand of
can elevate the masses of oppressed peo-
ple to the level of activism, no social
protest is possible. If the mantle of leader-
ship is elevated at too great a distance
black nationalism sought solutionsfrom
to the
the people, few will have the courage
reach toward that goal. Cone reminds
black community's problems from to
within,
us: "Thus, it is important to emphasize
focusing largely on questions of business
thatand
Martin and Malcolm, despite the
development, personal hygiene,
1960s and 1970s. Both Lee and Haley
excessive adoration their followers often
socially conservative behavior. Malcolm's
ignore the long history of African-American nationalism in the U.S., preferring to
see Malcolm as a Reaction* to white
world. It was not sufficient to save souls
They if
show us what ordinary people can
vision was always fixed on thebestow
largerupon them, were not messiahs.
accomplish through intelligence and sinone could not challenge social injustice.
Another serious weakness in Lee's cere
filmcommitment to the cause of justice
and Malfreedom. There is no need to look for
is the perspective which asserts that
messiahs
colm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.
were to save the poor. Human beings
can and must do it themselves."
inherently at odds over philosophies,
To really honor Malcolm X is to
strategies, and tactics in achieving freedom for African-Americans. Viewers
extend his political and ideological search
obtain the distinct impression that King
into the struggles of inequality, racism,
and
was an accommodating leader, seeking
to economic oppression which define
reconcile black demands within the
black liberation today. Black identity and
personal dignity require something more
framework of white power and privilege.
cultural manipulation of symbols
Nothing could be further from thethan
truth.
without
Such an approach ignores the fact
thatcritical content.
King broke with the Johnson Administration over the Vietnam War, embraced a
"Poor People's March" against poverty
SPIKE LEE
America's economic system. Simply
PRESENTS
because Martin failed to match Malcolm
and hunger in Washington, D.C. in 1968,
and advocated a radical restructuring of
X's fiery language and style, or refused to
MALGOLM X:
depart from nonviolence as a means of
public protest and civil disobedience,
doesn't make him an 'Uncle Tom.' In
Malcolm X is interviewed before a portrait of
Martin & Malcolm & America , noted
toJKlrilJMS
African-American theologian James Cone
that these two gifted, charismatracism and prejudice, rather than asobserved
the
were quick to cast aspersions on
ic figures were complementary: "They
product of a long and rich protest tradition.
and even
Spiketheeven
notionto(never
Lee's cast the notion aspersions usual critics (never on
were like two soldiers fighting their ene-Many were him of andhimquick
mind the film) of him attempting to
mies from different angles of vision, each
Lee also consulted Betty Shabazz and
pointing out the others blind spots and interpret the life and legacy of Malcolm X,
some of Malcolm's family members,
friends, and former associates. But his
correcting the other's errors. Each neededthe undisputed deity of black nationalism.
What could Lee - a thirtysomething, mideach other, for they represented - and
approach to Malcolm was the construccontinue to represent - the 'yin and yang'dle class millionaire, third generation coltion of a mythic hero figure, not an actual
lege graduate - know about the black
deep in the soul of black America."
political leader who made mistakes,
Lee's Malcolm X is an excellent introassessed his errors, and went in new direcstruggle for justice in the America of the
Sixties? What does Lee know about perduction to this magnificent and articulate
tions. The batde between Elijah Muhamsonal integrity and radical, fundamental
black spokesperson for liberation, but it is
mad and Malcolm is shown as grounded
also seriously limited in terms of criticalchange, societal or otherwise? Spike Lee
in personalities, rather than in differences
interpretation. The filmmaker's goal wasdidn't even know Malcolm, many
stemming from ideology and politics. Elito create a cultural icon, but the black charged. He was in grade school, for
jah Muhammad's sexual misadventures
community does not need myths. It des-God's sake, when the shining black prince
and Malcolm's 'silencing' for his "Chickperately requires practical solutions to itsmet his untimely, tragic, fratricidal end in
ens Coming Home to Roost" remarks folpressing problems. Malcolm's feet were the Audubon Ballroom in New York City
lowing the assassination of President John
always firmly planted on the ground, andin 1965.
F. Kennedy are the principal reasons given
Following the release of the film he would be the first to reject any notions
for the rupture within the Nation of
the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
Islam.
To be sure, Malcolm was personally
disillusioned with the private greed and
public hypocrisy of the core leaders within
the black nationalist formation, but Mal-
colm had been moving away from the
Nation's focus on spiritual issues for
many years. Throughout 1960-63, Malcolm X frequently spoke at hundreds of
that his legacy should be praised in aLee's epic, three hour and twenty-one
series of baseball caps, T-shirts, and wallminute Malcolm X - his critics remained
posters. The creation of charismatic, cul-steadfast. There was no social context,
tural messiahs may be attractive to a mid-they held forth. Lee spent too much time
dle class artist like Lee, but it represents awith irrelevant choreography and his own
political perspective grounded in conspir-character in the film and too little with
atorial theories, social isolation, and theo-the complexity of the man, the machinaretical confusion. If African-Americans
tions of the moment. And, for many, the
conclude that only the genius of a messiahfilm was just not angry enough.
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These critics, I think, are suffering
from an elemental delusion with regards
to Hollywood and its capabilities and
some pretty off-base assumptions about
contemporary African- American popular
culture, in which the cinema is the most
coveted vehicle. The charge of Hollywood
has never been to produce functional
political documents. And were the point
of Lee's sixth feature film to capture faith-
fully the meaning and the resilient spirit
of Malcolm in a manner that would satis-
fy the needs of every person of African
descent in the United States, it would have
remained as unmade as it has been for the
past two decades.
Instead, Malcolm X culminates loyally
the tide of new Black Nationalism that is
as American as the Afrocentrism to which
it lays claim. A few years ago, Nelson
sketchy and inconsequential.
The unfortunate fact of the matter is
character study, surprisingly light on idol-
that popular culture, African-American or
otherwise, tends to be shallow. I know this
something that is rarely done well, and
because otherwise Julie Dash's Daughters
of the Dust would have made more money
than Home Alone 2 and no one would care
if Elvis were dead or not. Instead, it pro-
It also happens to be a rather well-known
atry. And, most importantly, it does
even then most often in fictions like
Richard Wright's Native Son or Toni
Morrison's Beloved : it details the tragic
and profound effects of racism on the
vides common identities and tangible
construction of the African-American
links, primarily for young people, to universes beyond the family, the neighbor-
self-image, and the equally unfortunate
hood, or the classroom. It is a system
comprised of symbols, not knowledge.
Yet, the fact that X is the symbol of the
day is not without critical meaning for
African-Americans. Malcolm X has always
signified something singular, though
repercussions the resulting absence of
self-esteem can have on society as a whole.
Not in the abstract way that we under-
stand that slavery has a correlation to
black on black violence, but in the precise
way the experience of every African-
often unspoken, for black people, some-
American has been shaped in some way
by a school system, a social service net-
other figure in our history: the confirma-
teaches black children self-hate.
thing that cannot be expressed by any
work, a government, and a media that
The most nuanced and painful scenes
in Malcolm X are those that recount Mal-
colm's conversion to Islam, his submission to the will of Allah, his liberation
from ignorance and power. Though the
years that followed, those years in which
Malcolm X became the 'fiery' mouthpiece
for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and
the Nation of Islam, are often characterized as angry and full of rage, the film
paints a portrait of Malcolm at that time
as a man at peace, his agitated rhetoric
expressing nothing more than a clear
vision of how black people have been
duped by the American Dream.
A substantial portion of the film focuses on the early years in Malcolm's life (as
did a substantial portion of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, written with Haley,
on which the film is partly based), the
famous outlaw, hair-frying, white
Malcolm (Denzel Washington) prays to Allah during his hajj to Mecca in Malcolm X.
George, writing in The Village Voice ,
described the atmosphere from which
hip-hop flows as "a post-civil rights, ultraurban, unromantic, hyperrealistic, neona-
tionalistic, antiassimilationist, aggressive
Afro-centric impulse.>> It is, in fact, these
forces that have resurrected and enshrined
Malcolm X in his current incarnation,
which is better characterized by stylized
separatism than any sort of political
depth.
The audience that Lee serves, the masses that have iconized Lee himself, are not,
as his critics would argue, the white media
but Lee's contemporaries who, feeling a
bit beguiled by the civil rights hype, have
rejected integration wholesale, if only in
posture. Inasmuch, Africa is important
primarily because it is not Europe, and
Malcolm, because he is not Martin Luther
King, Jr. From there, the details get
woman-loving, drug-using, free-for-all
days, from which Malcolm drew so heavily in his calls for black people to rehabili-
tate themselves, using himself as the
tion that we are a people - beautiful, tenacious, and proud though we may be - that
has been dogged and victimized in the
most insidious form of slavery known. We
have been taught to hate ourselves. The
shackles that we languish in today are
prisons of the mind. And only by accepting this truth to be self-evident can we be
empowered. All the desegregation in the
world, as we have painfully seen, cannot
save us. That this man is the subject of the
first big budget Hollywood movie on the
life of a black historical figure is, in and of
definitive example. But, throughout the
sometimes comical, carefully stylized
scenes of Malcolm's loose-living days are
the threads that make the conversion
seem imminent.
An early scene stays with me: Malcolm
reclines in bed while his white lover,
Sophia, attempts to feed him breakfast.
His eyes narrow and he berates her, accusing her of wanting to destroy him. It is as
though he realizes that his desire for
Sophia, for her whiteness, is destroying
him, but, without any means of under-
itself, nothing short of a coup.
standing why, he can only lash out.
It is in these moments that Denzel
doubt, that Malcolm X is Spike Lee's most
conventional film to date, that it strays
very little, if at all, from the formulas of
epic or Hollywood biography as we, the
Washington brings the most to his phenomenal portrayal of Malcolm X, these
Still, it will be said, repeatedly no
moviegoing audience, have come to
understand those genres. And this is true.
moments of change and growth. As an
actor, Washington is known for his
immersion techniques, studying the character, 'becoming' the character he is called
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upon to play. In no other film role has he
been more successful.
been to capture his appearance at the
only through the short snippets of have
footage
Head of States Summit Meeting of the
from the point of view of presumably
Organization
of African Unity (OAU) in
white CIA agents in Cairo. We are
not
colm's three romantic interests that he
Cairo in July 1964. Malcolm did not
provided even a still photo of Malcolm
shows the most growth as a director. with
In
Egyptian President Gamaladdress
Abdal the summit, as some books have
For Lee, it is in his treatment of Mal-
claimed, but he was a sort of
particular, he resists the temptation to
Nasser, or any of the other Africanmistakenly
leaders
formulate a sweeping love story for Malhe met during two extensive tripsroving
across ambassador and eventually had
private sessions with all the significant
colm and his wife, Betty Shabazz. Instead
the continent. Missing are his contacts
representatives.
Malcolm, in concert with
he creates a resonant partnership marked
with such revolutionary leaders as
Presiseveral of his associates, including Dr.
by an extraordinary respect, warmth, and
dent Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, President
friendship.
Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Nnamdi John
Aziki-Henrik Clarke, had already formuwe of Nigeria, President Sekou Toure
latedof
ideas about structuring an organizaAny review of this film would be
remiss were it not to mention the remark-
tion based along the
able performance turned in by veteran
actor AlFreeman, Jr. (Chairman of the
Drama Department at Howard University) as Elijah Muhammad. The Minister is
guidelines of the OAU.
In the memorandum
presented to the OAU
he expressed some of
beautifully sketched with the delicate
complexity and pain one would have
the pertinent points he
had discussed earlier
expected from an erstwhile apostle.
with Dr. Nkrumah,
especially the necessity
obviously and sometimes excruciatingly
of merging the African
liberation movements
The problems with Malcolm X are
vintage Spike. For all of the contrived
meanings he would have for parading a
pan-African chorus of schoolchildren in
front of the camera only to announce, "I
am Malcolm X," and a rather bizarre
cameo by Nelson Mandela, the fact is that
Lee still does not know how to end a pic-
ture. But gratefully, he has learned to
draw a picture and tell a story. What Spike
Lee has finally been able to do in Malcolm
X is to interject into our cultural history a
hypnotic character, flawed and gracious,
who is capable of world-altering change.
with the struggle for
human rights by black
Americans. Like the
media of the day, how-
ever, Lee fails to
observe this unique
gathering in which the
OAU in its final reso-
lution promised to support the
efforts of Malcolm's
fledgling OAAU.
Toward the end of
the film, just before he
is to deliver his final
MALCOLM
speech, Malcolm
appears extremely
AfTJERMlCCA:_
Infertilii
Malcolm X, from his beginning as
In MalcolmMalcolm
MalcolmLittledepicting
to El HajjLittleMalikX, the
El- from various to El his Hajj incarnations beginning Malik El- as of
Shabazz, Spike Lee overlooked that brief
but relevant phase of Malcolm's life when
he was anointed "Omowale," a name
stressed and upset. In a
rare lapse of compo-
sure he berates his
aides for not having
completed the "docu-
ment." Most film
viewers are unaware
Malcolm X in a characteristic pose
that Malcolm is refer-
ring to a revision of the
OAAU's constitution
Guinea, Prime Minister Milton Obote
of special emendations on the role of
with
women in the organization. Clearly, expliUganda, and President Kwame Nkrumah
given to him by the Nigerian Muslim Stucation of this scene would have been douof Ghana.
dents' Society in 1964. It's a Yoruba term
for "the son who has come home."
bly meaningful in providing a glimpse of
In his autobiography Malcolm men-
the evolution of the organization and
tions all of these meetings and elaborates
To a large degree Omowale epitomizes
Malcolm's own changing attitudes about
fondly on his session with Dr. Nkrumah.
male
chauvinism.
They discussed the unity of Africans
and
African heritage and the cause of African
While
all peoples of African descent. A cameo of Lee found time to show the
independence. Lee had several opportunicleaning their guns and plotting
this meeting in the film would haveassassins
been
ties to highlight this phase of Malcolm's
rewarding. It would havetheir
dra- moves, he did not show one scene
development, particularly during the enormously
latmatized
the connection between Africa
with Malcolm conferring with his associter segments of the film when Malcolm
is
ates about the form and content of the
and Africans in the Diaspora, and Malstruggling to structure the Organization
OAAU. Such a moment would have been
colm's increasing potential as a world
of Afro-American Unity (OAAU).
leader.
While Lee went to considerable
pregnant with possibilities, allowing viewers to see how Malcolm functioned in
An even better opportunity to showexpense to recreate Malcolm's pilgrimage
case Malcolm's
internationalism would
to Mecca, Malcolm is seen on African
soil
meetings as well as some of the stated
Malcolm's full identification with his
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POPULAR
CULTURE AND
POLITICAL
EMPOWERMENT:
by TiM lay!
Photographs
andbothMartin
LutherwallsKing,
Photographs Jr.Jr.
Kennedys
have long
have long
adorned
andKennedys
adorned
the walls
of Martin
of
Luther the martyred
King, of
ghetto and working class African-American homes. Eventually, I came to regard
this standard triptych as emblematic of
never satisfy, but for those of us who
objectives of the OAAU.
both the strengths and weaknesses of Sixwant the complete Malcolm, that
An example of such a meeting merely
is
ties liberalism. The image of Malcolm X
which includes the African phase symboldescribed by Earl Grant, one of the trustwas conspicuous by its absence; the marized by Omowale, Lee's choices are disaped aides depicted in the film, in Malcolm
ginal status of this increasingly influential
X: The Man and His Times (Africa World
pointing. A filmmaker, particularlyleader
a remained a constant for many
Press, 1990). He writes about a business
maker of a biopic, must be judged on
years.
what facets of a life he or she deems
meeting called for Saturday night, FebruThe recent release of Spike Lee's Mal-
Malcolm (Denzel Washington) speaking in front of the Apollo Theater in Harlem on behalf of
the Nation of Islam in Malcolm X.
important to emphasize or deemphasize.
ary 20th, 1965. A dozen people were precolm X makes amends for the previous
sent. Although Malcolm was very tired Nowhere in the film is Malcolm's antineglect of Malcolm's revolutionary mesand restless, he said it was important that
capitalist, antiimperialist position
sage, although Lee's film, and the media
stressed. Had this political attitude been
the meeting take place. He wanted a comcircus which accompanied it, proved
properly revealed, perhaps it would have
plete reorganization of the OAAU. He felt
problematic. It might be said that Malsome of the black neoconserit had not been able to take advantagediscouraged
of
colm X was resurrected only to die a secvatives - beginning with Justice Clarence
the attention drawn to it by his activities
ond death induced by cultural and media
Thomas - from tarring Malcolm with
and he wanted women to be given a more
prostitution.
their reactionary brush. Malcolm was cerclearly defined organizational role.
Lee's film attempts to pay Malcolm the
tainly a firm believer in self-help andsame
he kind of respect that was once
In several ways the OAAU and its aims
are Malcolm's last will and testament. A
excoriated liberals, but his uncompromisreserved for King and the Kennedys. In
culmination of his ideas, it providesing
a stand against the American system
of
essence,
Malcolm X endeavors to refurbish
exploitation and oppression, his revolublueprint of where he had been and where
Malcolm's memory and legitimize him as
tionary black nationalism that insisteda true
on American. As the film opens, we are
he was going. His cultural ideas are of
confronting white supremacy and vioparticular interest. He wrote: "Our culturshown an enlarged image of the American
lence with a militant defense, distinal revolution must be the means of bringflag - a not so subtle allusion to Patton guished him from today's black conserva- and listen to Denzel Washington's uncaning us closer to our African brothers and
tives who are convinced that Malcolm
sisters. It must begin in the community
ny impersonation of Malcolm's oratory.
would be in their camp.
and be based on community participaEventually, the edges of this enormous
tion. Afro- Americans will be free to create Lee's Malcolm X is a powerful film.
flag begin to burn slowly, ultimately givHad he chosen to round off the great
only when they depend on the Afroing way to the by now familiar images of
man's life, however, making it resonate
American community. Afro-American
Rodney King's brutal beating. When the
with the conviction and integrity of his
artists must realize that they depend on
sequence ends, the flag has burned into
be likeness of an %'
the Afro-American for inspiration. Weinternational phase, the film would the
must work toward the establishment of a even more remarkable, educational, and This red, white, and blue 'X' foreshadcultural center in Harlem which will
inspirational. Rarely are African-Ameriows the film's ingenious narrative stratecan artists given an opportunity to coninclude people of all ages, and will congy: a protracted apologia for Malcolm's
nect
duct workshops in all of the arts, such
as in such a massive way with our
inclusion within the pantheon of AmeriAfrican sisters and brothers. This is whatcan political heroes. This 'Americanizafilm, creative writing, painting, theater,
the last days of Malcolm's life were tion'
all of Malcolm X is achieved by depictmusic, Afro-American history, etc." One
about - you might say he had devolved
would think Lee would be anxious to preing his political and spiritual growth in a
sent these views.
back to the beginning, recognizing the
maimer that resembles a cinematic equivalent of the Stations of the Cross. In the
importance of Africa, like his Garveyite
Less surprisingly, Lee has omitted any
father. Lee and his associates should have
indications of Malcolm's ever evolving
film's early sequences, the character of
paid a little more attention to Malcolm's Malcolm Little is presented with a certain
prosocialist tendencies, particularly his
admonition:
"You say you have left noth- amount of ironic sympathy. Although this
concern for geopolitical developments
in
the Caribbean and Latin America. Cering in Africa, why, you left your mind in pre-political Malcolm strays from the
Africa."
tainly there are several critics who Lee can
path of righteousness, he is shown as con-
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tinually evolving. Malcolm's transformation from street hustler to respected political leader is conveyed through a series of
visual and aural motifs. Lee's camera captures Malcolm's changing tastes in clothing, from the gaudy zoot suits favored by
the 'country' Malcolm to the more digni-
fied apparel he dons after meeting his
West Indian friend, Archie. In the film's
later sequences, another crucial epiphany
is signaled by the appearance of Mal-
colm's newly grown beard: this seemingly
inconsequential change heralds the protagonist's break with the Nation of Islam
and the formation of a new stage in his
political and religious evolution. Finally,
Malcolm's journey from thief to martyr is
evoked with the inclusion of Sam Cooke's
"A Change is Gonna Come" on the
define the film's collaboration with this
empty of meaningful political or intellectual content. Lee refuses to address Malprocess of commodification as anything
other than truly 'American.'
colm's transformation from an archetypal
The resurfacing of Malcolm X as an
'race man' to an internationalist and panicon of political resistance can be traced to
Africanist. The film merely honors Malcolm as a humanist, and this incomplete
the growing importance of hip-hop and
rap subcultures. When rappers became
portrait of a complex man sets the stage
for his enshrinement as a true 'American.'
weary of repetitive 'dick grabbing,' they
rediscovered Black Nationalist politics.
While the barrage of television advertisements for the film reminded viewers of
Since rap's 'hard core' has always been an
arena of male angst, Ossie Davis's eulogy
Malcolm's aphorism - "We didn't land
extolling Malcolm's exemplary 'black
on Plymouth rock, Plymouth rock landed
on us!" - it is now evident that Malcolm
manhood' satisfied rap's hunger for powerful role models.
X has landed somewhere between Madi-
Throughout rap's brief history, Public son Avenue and Hollywood.
Enemy, KRS-One, and Ice Cube, among
others, repeatedly invoked Malcolm and
his image in order to reinforce their
MALE HEROES
opposition to American racism. While the
soundtrack as the hero hurries to New
Reagan Administration put racial tensions
the back burner and elevated Clarence
York's Audubon Ballroom, the site ofon
his
tragic assassination.
Thomas and Thomas Sowell to positions
It soon becomes apparent that Lee
of power, Malcolm's rage found contemregards Malcolm's prison conversion porary
criexpressions in the impassioned
rants of African-American rap artists. Ice
sis as the film's dramatic apogee, the central event in the life of a saint. Lee's effecCube's third album, The Predator , offered
an informed response to the rebellion of
by Bell Hooks
April 1992 that followed in the wake of
the disastrous Rodney King verdict. Ice
Cube's chant, "April 29th/More Power to ative best in scenes highlighting black
males.allPortraying
Spike bestblack
Portraying
masculinity
in Lee's scenes films, black highlighting he masculinity is at his black crethe People/And we might just see aIn ative males.
through a spectrum of complex and
sequel," contains tangible echoes of Maldiverse portraits, he does not allow audicolm's famous "Message to the Grassences to hold a stereotypical image. For
roots" speech. In that speech, Malcolm
that reason alone, I imagined Malcolm X
proclaimed that "revolution was based on
land," and concluded that bloodshed waswould be a major work, one of his best
films. At last, I thought, Spike's finally
the only means for realizing revolutionary
going to just do it - make a film that will
goals. Although the 'revolution' of South
allow him to focus almost exclusively on
Central Los Angeles did not reward the
black men, since women were always at
insurgents with any land, it did reflect
Malcolm's insistence that America's viothe periphery of Malcolm's life. Thinking
that the film
lent racial past would continue to insure
a would not focus centrally on
females, I was relieved. Like many females
present of violent retribution.
The current black cultural scene, with
in Lee's audience, I have found his representation of women in general, and black
its ritual invocation of the image of Malwomen in particular, to be consistently
colm X, contrasts sharply with the black
stereotypical and one-dimensional.
cultural agenda of the Sixties. At that
time, 'cultural production' and political Ironically, Nola Darling in She's Gotta
Have It remains one of Lee's most comtive use of voice-over gives the audience
struggle were seen as indivisible. H. Rap
Brown described the militant skirmishes
pelling representations of black womanaccess to Malcolm's thoughts and doubts,
hood. Though a failed portrait of a liberof this period as a "dress rehearsal" for an
while the Honorable Elijah Muhammad
imminent revolution and the cultural
ated woman, Darling is infinitely more
emerges as his savior, the man with the
complex than any of the women who folwing of the Black Power movement,
ability to purge him of dope-fiend pain.
low her in Lee's work. She's Gotta Have It
whether embodied by the MarxistDespite the ostensibly militant trapshowed
an awareness on Lee's part that
inspired dramaturgy of Amiri Baraka
or
pings of Malcolm's newfound theology,
AND FEMALE
SEX OBJECTS:
Spike Lee's Malcolm
JT suffers from a
common tendency to
recycle history into
pure spectacle
empty of meaningful
political or
intellectual content.
the film clearly embraces some of the
most potent myths of American culture.
Malcolm's ability to 'pull himself up by
his own bootstraps' fits neatly into the
ideology of upward mobility, and, para-
doxically, Malcolm emerges as more
'American' than the elite Kennedys or the
middle class, well-educated Martin Luther
King, Jr. Given the ubiquitous 'X' on film
posters, baseball caps, T-shirts, and other
paraphernalia, it would be difficult to
there has indeed been a Women's Liberathe musical commentary of Gil Scott-
Heron, was seen as inextricable from tion
the movement that converged with the
so-called 'sexual revolution.' Nola Darling
struggle against white supremacy. Unforwas not obsessed with conventional hettunately, in recent years, popular culture
erosexist politics. Throughout much of
has remained the black community's only
the film she seemed to be trying to forge a
source of political empowerment.
sexual practice that would meet her needs.
Although Spike Lee's Malcolm X hopes
This film shows that Lee is capable of
to give Malcolm's legacy a prominent
thinking critically about representations
place within America's historical memory,
of black women, even though he ends the
the film suffers from a common tendency
film by placing Nola Darling in a misogyto recycle history into pure spectacle
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nist, sexist framework that ultimately
punishes her for daring to oppose sexist
norms of female sexual behavior. Rape is
the punishment that puts her back in her
place. And it is this scene in the film that
ruptures what began as a transgressive
narrative and makes it humdrum, commonplace.
Just as Lee abandons Nola Darling,
undermining the one representation of
black womanhood that breaks new cine-
matic ground, from that moment on he
apparently abandoned all desire to give
viewing audiences new and different rep-
resentations of black females. Lee's desire
to reach a larger, mainstream audience
may account for the shift in perspective.
Once he moved out of the world of inde-
pendent filmmaking into mainstream cinema, he was seeking to acquire an audi-
ence not necessarily interested in
Malcolm (Denzel Washington), accompanied by his wife, Betty (Angela Bassett), and their
challenging, unfamiliar representations. children, gives an airport press conference on his return from Mecca in Malcolm X.
No matter how daring his films, how
transgressive their subject matter, to have
a predictable success he provided viewers
with stock images. Uncompromising in
his commitment to create images of black
males that challenge shallow perceptions
and bring the issue of racism to the
screen, he conforms to the status quo
gets her man in the end does so by surrendering her will to challenge and confront.
She simply understands and accepts. It's a
bleak picture. In the final analysis, mo'
shallowness of the film, this focus dre
crowds. Overall, however, the film had
nothing new or revelatory to share abou
race, gender, or desire. No doubt th
better is mo' bitter.
crowd-drawing appeal of such material
Jungle Fever plays out the same tired
patterns, only the principal black woman
accounts for the fact that Spike Lee's cine
matic reconstruction of Malcolm X's life
when it comes to images of females. Sex- character, Drew (Lonette McKee), is a
begins with a sorry remake of Jungle Fever .
ism is the familiar construction that links
combination of bitch/ho' and
Anyone who has studied Malcolm X's life
his films to all the other Hollywood draand workwith
knows that no one has considmammy/madonna. The film begins
mas folks see. Just when the viewer might
ered his
with white women
scenes of lovemaking, where she
is involvement
busy
possibly be alienated by the radical take
pleasuring her man. We see her
later
as the
highin
point of his career as small
on issues in a Spike Lee film, some basic
pimp
and hustler. Yet it is this
the film cooking and cleaning.time
Even
her
sexist nonsense will appear on the screen
that most captures Spike's
job is mainly about looking involvement
good. Her
to entertain, to provide comic relief, to
most bitchified, intense' read imagination,
of Flipper
so much so that almost half
comfort audiences by letting them know
of the
film focuses
on Malcolm's relation(Wesley Snipes) occurs when he
comes
to
that the normal way of doing things is not
her workplace. As with all of ship
Spike
withLee's
a white woman named Sophia.
being fully challenged.
representations of black heterosexuality,
The young Malcolm X was sexist and
Certainly the female role that most
men and women never really misogynist,
communiand, in fact, made a point of
conformed to this pattern was the characcate. Portrayals of white femaletreating
characters
women badly. Yet Lee ignores the
ter of Tina played by Rosie Perez in Do the
are equally stereotypical. They
sexism
are
that
sex
shaped and determined MalRight Thing . She is the nagging, bitchified,
colm'swhite
attitude towards women and
objects, spoils in the war between
seductive female who is great to bone (not
males and black males over which
makesgroup
it appear that his lust for Sophia is
to be taken seriously, mind you). No matwill dominate the planet.
solely a response to racism, that having
ter how bitchified she is, in the final
In Jungle Fever white and black
the women
white man's woman is a way to rebel
analysis her man, played by Spike, has her
never meet, they exist in a world
apart.
and assert
power. Like the younger Malunder control. This same misogynist mes- This media construction is a fiction which
colm, the real-life Sophia was a hustler,
sage is played out all the more graphically
belies the reality that the vast not
majority
of
the portrait
of an innocent little girl
in School Daze where the collective humiliation of black females enhances black
working black women encounter
trapped
white
in a woman's body which Lee
women daily on the job, encounters
that
gives viewers.
It was disturbing to see
male bonding. Yet it is Mo' Better Blues
are charged with tension, power
struggles
Lee's
version of Malcolm's life begin with
that sets paradigms for black gender relafueled by racism and sexism.
These
and focus
centrally on his lust for white
tions. Black females are neatly divided
female
bodies, but it was even more disaspects of white and black female
interacinto two categories - ho' or
tions are only hinted at in Jungle
turbing
Feverthat
in this relationship was pormammy/madonna. The ho' is out for
the one improvised scene where
trayedblack
as yet another example of jungle
what she can get, using her pussy to
women gather to discuss Drew's
fever.'
situation
Spike Lee refuses to allow for the
seduce, conquer, and exploit the male.
. and their collective obsession with
getting
possibility
that there could be meaningful
The mammy/madonna nurtures, forgives,
affectional ties between a black man and a
and keeping a man.
provides unconditional love. Black men,
whiteJungle
woman which transcend the sexual.
Within the cultural marketplace,
mired in sexism and misogyny, tolerate
The film does
Fever courted viewers by claiming
to not show that Malcolm
the strong, 'bitchified,' tell-it-like-it-is
address the taboo subject of interracial
maintainedsex
contact with Sophia long after
black woman but also seek to escape her.
and desire, highlighting black male
their sexual
interrelationship ended. In Lee's
In Mo' Better Blues the black woman who
actions with white females. Despite
version,the
relationships between black men
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and white women never transcend the
fictive erasure of Malcolm's half sister
WW DIU SPEAK
sexual. Indeed, in Lee's cinematic world,
(whom he referred to as his sister), Ella
every relationship between a black manLittle. She is not present in the film and
and a woman, whether white or black, is
their relationship is never discussed by
other characters. A major influence in
mediated by his constant sexualization of
FOR EL-HAJJ
Malcolm's life, Ella, along with their
the female.
MUIK El-
Fictively recreating the relationshipbrother, Reginald, converted him to
Islam, helped educate him for critical conbetween Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz
sciousness. By not portraying Ella or
provided an opportunity for Spike Lee to
bring to Hollywood cinema a differentreferring to her influence, Spike creates a
fictive world of black heterosexuality in
representation of black womanhood and
which all interaction between black
black heterosexuality. Lee did not rise to
women and men is overdetermined by
the challenge. All his films show darker
sexuality, always negotiated by lust and
skinned men choosing lighter skinned
desire. Conveniently, this allows the film
black female partners. Malcolm X should
have been different. By his choice as ato reinscribe and perpetually affirm male
fair-skinned black male of a darker
domination of females, making it appear lywood biopic has been a refusal to
natural.
The lywood deal hallmark
dealwithwith
biopic the of the
has most themost
been traditional
controversial
controversial a refusal Hol- to
skinned partner, Malcolm was disrupting
By not portraying Ella, Lee is ableaspects
to
a black politics of desire which reflected
of the subject's life. Spike Lee's
create a film that does not break with
internalized racism. Rather than honoring
Malcolm X is no exception. His hagiograHollywood conventions and stereotypes.phy is in the mode of the classic Hollythrough his representations the significance of this choice, Lee reinscribes
In the
Hollywood films the super-masculinewood biopics of Benito Juarez, Madame
Curie, and Louis Pasteur, while his avoidhero is most often portrayed as a loner, an
same color caste conventions he exploits
outlaw, a cultural orphan estranged from
ance of Malcom X's ultimate political
in all his films. Though a madonna figure
in Malcolm X, Shabazz is portrayed family
as an and society. To have shown the
views is comparable to the denial of Cole
bonds between Ella and Malcolm which
Porter's homosexuality in Night and Day.
advocate of 'women's rights' challenging
Malcolm's sexism and misogyny.were
Thissustained throughout his life, Lee Lee's editorial timidity is first evident
would
in the way in which Malcolm Little's
portrait falsely constructs an image
of have needed both to break with
SHUUZ?:
Ijlateiriikas
black womanhood that would not have
Hollywood representations of the male
criminal career is depicted. His drug
hero as well as provide an image of black
addiction is made episodic rather than
been acceptable for female initiates in the
womanhood never before imagined on
chronic, and his pimping activities are
Nation of Islam, who were taught not to
the Hollywood screen. The character ofbarely alluded to. The one major crime
be manipulative or seductive, to be obediElla would have been a powerful, politishown on screen is offered as light comeent to male authority. Lee's fictive
cally conscious black woman who could
Shabazz seduces and traps. She 'reads' her
dy. This sanitizing diminishes the tremenman in the bitchified manner that is Lee'snot be portrayed as a sex object. Lee's pordous effort required by Malcolm Little to
traits of black women in Malcolm X mir- become Malcolm X.
trademark representation of heterosexual
ror the usual stereotypes found in films by More troubling, however, is the nearly
black coupling. Even though the real-life
Shabazz shared with her that she did not
white directors. Ella was radical in her
blank accounting of Malcolm's political
evolution after his trip to Mecca, the periargue with Malcolm, no doubt because thinking about blackness, more of a leader
od in which he took the name El-Hajj
she was conforming to the Nation ofthan a follower. To represent her fictively,
Islam codes of behavior which were
Lee would have had to disrupt the fiction
Malik El-Shabazz. Two eventful trips to
that politics is a male realm, that the fight
Africa are entirely omitted. Viewers unfainformed by sexist notions of appropriate
to end racism is really a struggle between
miliar with Malcolm's life have no way of
female behavior, Lee's film portrays them
white and black men.
knowing he met with more than a dozen
as fighting. Indeed, the most intense scene
It reveals much about the nature of
Arab and black African heads of state,
in the film is their near violent argument.
sexism and misogyny that the erased,
As with all good nanny/madonna figures,
many of whom had come to power
symbolically murdered figure of Ella isthrough revolutionary movements and
the fictional Shabazz fights with her man
because she has his best interests at heart.
replaced by a fictional, older black malemost of whom were socialists. These leaders counseled him to relate the Africancharacter, Baines, who initiates Malcolm
This image is consistent with the way
into the political realm. The invention of
American liberation struggle to panSpike Lee's films depict black marriage;
couples are either fucking or fighting. this
Likemake-believe character allows Lee to
other female characters in Malcolm X,
Shabazz must be molded and shaped by
Lee so that her character mirrors prevailing stereotypes. Lee's film conforms to
Africanism and other movements for
fictively create a hierarchical world ofcultural and national self-determination.
male power that conforms to popular, Rather than being shown as having
black nationalist, sexist insistence that increasingly important international conmales are best taught by males. Scenes of tacts, Lee's post-Mecca Malcolm X is renracist/sexist iconography that depicts black male homosocial bonding in the dered as an isolated figure. He seems as
white women as innocent and therefore
prison context reaffirm the patriarchal politically adrift as claimed by Mike Waldesirable and black woman as controlling- assumption that it is only the actions oflace and Dan Rather in a 1992 CBS spedomineering therefore undesirable. Had men that matter. This creates a version of cial. This view ignores the fact that MalLee chosen to represent Shabazz as sub- black political struggle where the actions colm was creating a dynamic in which his
missive, his film would have challenged of dedicated, powerful, black female participation in a new civil rights moveHollywood's stereotypical portrayal of activists are systematically devalued and ment would be calculated to make state
black women as always domineering - or erased. By writing Ella out of Malcolm's and federal authorities more amenable to
history, Spike Lee continues Hollywood'sdealing with Martin Luther King, Jr., as a
as always sexual.
lesser evil. Malcolm was also a classic
One of the most serious gaps in Lee's devaluation of black womanhood.
autodidact who never stopped reading.
fictive portrayal of Malcolm's life is the
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His studies were now carrying him into
new ideological ground. Associates have
stated he was greatly impressed by his
reading of C. L. R. James, the Afro-
Caribbean Marxist, and by "The Colonial
War at Home," a May- June 1964 editorial
in the socialist Monthly Review .
A striking scene in Lee's film occurs
when the pre-Mecca Malcolm curtly turns
away a white woman who indicates her
sympathy for his views. Just how far he
had traveled from that orientation and
the actions were too sophisticated
another occasion, the SWP provided stated
a
translator when Malcolm was visited byto simply be the work of the Nation of
French-speaking Africans. The long-termIslam. In this context, Lee's evocation of
significance of this development is thatunidentified government wiretappers and
ludicrous CIA agents in Egypt is almost
even though many of his associates were
demeaning.
wary of the SWP contact, Malcolm was
At the conclusion of Malcolm X, black
willing to work openly with principled
white allies, however radical their ideolo-children stand by their school desks to
proclaim, "I am Malcolm X." The camera
gythen shows us Nelson Mandela standing
Malcolm's major organizational effort
by a blackboard in a teaching capacity.
post-Mecca was the Organization of AfroThis is as close as Lee ever comes to indiAmerican Unity (OAAU), a group barely
alluded to in the film and
cating where Malcolm was heading politinot composed only of those cally and what the reactions of Africanwho had followed Malcolm
out of the Nation of Islam.
Americans should be. But Mandela is
evoked as a celebrity, a cultural icon not
Among black radicals Mal- unlike a pop star. In reality, of course,
colm was involving in his Mandela is an African socialist who has
new organization were Max led a mostly black nationalist movement
Sanford of the Revolutionwith socialist and liberal allies. Among his
strategies has been the use of the United
ary Action Movement
(RAM) and Conrad Lynn, Nations and world public opinion to
the attorney who was rep- advance his cause. Such a political perresenting hundreds of spective is never posed in Malcolm X. For
African-American draft
resisters. The RAM connec-
those African-Americans who want to
identify with Malcolm, there is only the
tion was important for story of how Malcolm Little became MalRAM already had influence
in the Atlanta office of the
Student Nonviolent Coor-
dinating Committee
colm X. Withheld is how Malcolm X was
defining El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. That
new identity does not fit neatly on a base-
ball cap, and it does not play well in Peo(SNCC), had worked close- ria.
ly with the Philadelphia
NAACP, and had members
who would later help form
the League of Revolution-
BLACK
Detroit. RAM's honorary
leader was Robert Williams, SUPREMACY AND
who had first come to
prominence in the late
ANTI-SEMITISM:
ary Black Workers in
1950s as an exponent of
armed self-defense. After
being framed on a kidnapping charge, Williams had
taken asylum in Cuba and
then China.
Malcolm X at the Audubon Ballroom moments before he was
struck down by assassins' bullets on February 21st, 1965.
Political outreaching of
this kind makes it obvious
b} JiHts Lester
famous video of the Los Angeles
Malcolm police famouspolice
beating
beatingX video
Rodneyopens
King.of the Rodney with Los the Angeles King. now
Imposed over this is an American flag
that Malcolm was position- which starts to burn until a singed, red
ing himself to play a major and white striped 'X' dominates the
screen. In one of the many talk show
why federal agencies were alarmed by hisrole in the dissident movements of the
interviews that Spike Lee did to promote
change can be seen in his developing rela- 1960s. At the time he formed the OAAU,
the film, he said he chose to open the film
tionship with the mostly white Socialistthe antiwar movement and the New Left
Workers Party (SWP). He spoke at its were still in their early stages, while the with the Rodney King video to show that
Militant Labor Forum twice in 1964, oncemassive civil rights movement was just little had changed in America since Malat the SWP's invitation and once at his
beginning to deal with the problems colm's time.
This is a limited truth. When inflated
own request. He had been impressed thatposed by urban rebellions. The potential
impact of Malcolm X's direct participa- to represent the whole of a people's and a
the SWP's weekly newspaper had been
tion within this constellation is unknownation's story, it's irresponsible, a political
publishing his speeches verbatim, and at
the time of his assassination, he was nego-able, but the prospect was as ominous to distortion that turns history into propathe Establishment as it was exhilarating to ganda. The Rodney King beating is only
tiating to have them printed as a book by
the SWP's publishing arm. That project rebels. J. Edgar Hoover was already in a one face of black/white relations in Amerwas completed by Betty Shabazz and thefrenzy to prevent the appearance of what ica. Another equally important face is the
fact that a number of whites were outhe called "the Black Messiah." As various
result, Malcolm X Speaks , long remained
attempts on Malcolm's life were made, he raged by the beating and subsequent
the only collection of his speeches. On
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acquittal of the policemen involved. That
white America could get outraged by the
beating of a black man is a significant
change from the indifference of the early
Sixties. It's a change which the cynical
take underlying the film's opening frames
would want us to believe has either not
Spike Lee also maintains his anti-
heart of political change, and the means
are the hard, unglamorous, unromantic
day to day work of organizing people and
Semitic record in this film. In the prison
scene where Malcolm confronts the chap-
resources around a viable and coherent
lain, asking him: "You've been talking
about the disciples. What color were
ideology. "By any means necessary" was a
placebo when Malcolm proclaimed it in
they?" The chaplain demurs, but Malcolm
presses on. "They were Hebrew, weren't
the Sixties. It is a narcotic now, designed
they?" The chaplin concurs. "As Jesus
occurred or is totally insignificant.
The title sequence gives us the image was,"
of continues Malcolm. "Jesus was also
the black man as victim of white America.
a Hebrew. What color were the original
to give one a 'black high' and nothing
more. "By any means necessary" is not a
point of view; it is a cry of despair, a mewl
The opening scene, however, uncon- Hebrews?" The chaplain demurs again
sciously contradicts that sequence. In that and Malcolm presses home his point,
scene Malcolm X has his hair straight- namely, the Hebrews were black, and
of impotence, a fitting coda to a politics
based on empty posturing.
ened, presenting the audience with anoth- therefore God is black.
er order of victim, a man who is victimThis neat bit of sophistry implies that
SPIKE LEE,
ized by his own racial self-hatred. The Judaism was originally a black religion
depth of Malcolm's self-hatred is essential that was later stolen by whites, a view pro-
for an understanding of what would mulgated by the Nation of Islam and
MALCOLM X, AND
THE MONEY ÍSAME:
become his politics. The film undermines assorted Afrocentrists. Such a view is an
such understanding because Denzel act of cultural imperialism reading back
Washington is darker than Malcolm X. In into the past a contemporary black
his autobiography, Malcolm states that he supremacist perspective that recreates
grew up proud because he looked more God in its own image. It is also anti-
white than his siblings. And the Nation of Semitic because it implies that the Jews
Islam became the means by which he stole Judaism from blacks. The second
sought to exorcise his racial self-hatred. anti-Semitic scene comes in the following
Despite the film's respect for this position, speech by Malcolm conveyed in a voicethe adoption of black supremacist politics over:
doesn't purge anything. It merely puts a
veneer of racial militancy over the agony
of one's sense of inferiority.
Lee's Malcolm X fails because it refuses
bj Jesse Rkiies
million from Warner Bros, to
When produce
millionwhite
Spike
produce
from Malcolm LeeMalcolm
Warner demanded X, heX,
Bros, saidhe
$35 tosaid
it
it
guilty
of
The white people who are
deserved
the
same budget the studio had
supremacy try and hide their own
guilt
by
for Oliver Stone's JFK. Warner
accusing the Honorable Elijah provided
Muhammad
Bros, thought
otherwise on the basis that
of teaching black supremacy when
he tries
JFK
as
icon
had
a much larger potential
to uplift the mentality , the social and the
audience than that for Malcolm X as icon.
economic condition of black people in this
Tobeen
paraphrase
the famous Lloyd Bentsen
country. And the Jews , who have
guilty
they, were
of the black people economically, quip,
civilly
and saying, "Spike, your Malis no Kennedy."
leaves the uninformed viewer with the
otherwise , hide their guilt by colm
accusing
the
Lee thought his film could comof being
impression that Malcolm was a major fig-Honorable Elijah Muhammad That
as large
an audience as JFK reveals
anti-Semitic simply because hemand
teaches
our
ure during his lifetime. In fact, Congress-
to examine X's own politics of racial selfhatred, and has no other point of view
except Malcolm's. Thus, it can mainly act
only as a mouthpiece for black nationalism. This absence of another perspective
how muchand
Malcolm X's image has
people to go into business for ourselves
man Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. had a
changed
over the years, or at least the kind
leadership
much broader following. While Malcolmtrying to take over the economic
of image
Lee was willing to fashion. Hisin our own community. (By Any
Means
received wide media coverage, on the
torically, JFK
Necessary: The Trials and Tribulations
of and Malcolm occupied
black political spectrum he was on the
entirely
different
political spheres. It's
fringe. In addition, the film refuses tothe Making of Malcolm X... Including the
hard toWiley,
imagine any circumstance in
consider information which doesn't
Screenplay by Spike Lee with Ralph
which Malcolm would have been invited
p. 271)
derive from the autobiography. It presents
as truth that the Klan set fire to the Little
to tea at Camelot. Nor can we visualize
There is no denying that there were
family home while Malcolm's mother was
Kennedy, rather than Martin Luther King,
Jr., smiling and shaking hands with Mal-
colm's speeches. But Lee excluded other
murdered by Klansmen. Both incidents
troubling aspects of Malcolm's public and
make for very dramatic footage in the
private
film. However, Bruce Perry's biography
of life from the film. The film never
mentions that Betty Shabbaz left Malcolm
Malcolm X, Malcolm: The Life of a Matt
on three separate occasions, or that MalWho Changed Black America , presents
colm was unable to convince Muhammad
convincing evidence that it was Malcolm's
to leave the Nation of Islam with him.
father who set fire to the house, and Ali
that
colm in that famous photograph Do the
anti-Semitic strains in Malpregnant with him, and that his fatherprofound
was
Right Things Smiley lugged about. It's
also doubtful that Malcolm would have
issued a "chickens coming home to roost"
statement had King rather than Kennedy
been assassinated in 1963. Martin and
Malcolm did not agree on strategies and
goals,
but they were not asymmetrical in
There is no organic reason that these
his father was killed while trying to climb
words are in the film, and they serve no the way Malcolm and JFK were. Malcolm
aboard a moving streetcar as he was runpurpose
except to further one of the worst and JFK had followings that were asymning from a girlfriend's husband. While
it
metrical in their racial composition, their
is understandable that Malcolm would
anti-Jewish stereotypes.
long
range goals, and, most importantly,
The
film
concludes
with
a
photograph
create myths which granted him impeccable credentials as a victim of white racism
of Malcolm X, and with his assertion thatin their relative size. Something profound
change must be brought about "by anymust have happened to the image of Malright from the womb, it is irresponsible
means necessary." Slogans, however, colm and/or of JFK over the decades if, in
for a filmmaker to perpetuate those
don't make a politics. Means are at thethe 1990s, they are considered capable of
myths.
attracting equivalent, much less the same,
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moviegoing audiences. Or perhaps it is
The major positive aspect of this approach
is that it has been able to stimulate broad
the image of Malcolm as shaped by Lee
that becomes compatible with the image
popular interest in Malcolm as a historical
figure. We can expect an increased enroll-
of JFK as shaped by Stone.
reelection, and his death transformed him
into a national martyr on the scale of Lin-
coln. The conspiracy angle to JFK added
RECOMMENDED
additional dramatic dimensions that
seemed lacking in the conventional ver-
sion of Malcolm's assassination. Put more
simply, if one assumes an average national
admission price of $4, and if fifty percent
of all thirty million African-Americans
bought a ticket to see Malcolm X, the box
office return would be $60 million. If fifty
percent of white Americans bought tickets, the return would be $400 million.
READINGS ON
MALCOLM X
Roman Oiildhood
BOOK 1
"/ have known Carl Mar
years , a remarkable man
hard-headed practicality.
and as a critic of commun
anarchist, and social democratic parties, he brings a rare insight to contemporary upheavals . His ongoing
memoir, The Education of a Reluctant
Radical, pricks the bubble of
Washington's global hegemony
-Dorothy Healey
Postpaid $10.00
Notebook of a Sixties Lawyer- Michael S. Smith, $1 1 00
This nearly sevenfold gap on return deter-
Black Bolshevik- Harry Haywood, $10.00
Solidarity Forever: An Oral History of the I WW, $1 1 00
Historical and Biographical:
Breitman, George,
audience alone, was the primary marketThe
for Malcolm X.
RADICAL
over the next few years, among both black
and white students. We can even expect
more black history to be entwined with
national history. But only a much more
to make it a success? Malcolm had been
vigorous look at the real Malcolm in all
his transformations will counter the film's
despised by the vast majority of whites
during his lifetime and disliked by
a
implicit
JFK/X symmetry-a cultural and
majority of black Americans as well. JFK,
historical dupe-which only a master marin contrast, had a reasonable chance for
keter like Spike Lee could have pulled off.
a crossover audience, and not a black
RELUCTANT
ment in African-American Studies courses
The major consideration for Warner
Bros, regarding Malcolm X was whether
or not it could get a crossover audience.
How else could a $35 million, three hour
plus epic bring in the $90 million needed
mined Warner Bros. 's consideration that
THE EDUCATION of"
Women in Cuba- Margaret Randall, $10 00
Make checks payable to
Last Year of Malcolm X : The Evolution of
a Revolutionary. NY: Pathfinder Press, 1967,
Smyrna Press
To meet that need, Lee dampened1989.
every controversial aspect of Malcolm'sCone,
Box 021803 - GPO, Dept. C, Brooklyn, NY 11202
James,
Martin
life, not least the pan-Africanism and
& Malcolm & America: A Dream or a
Nightmare? Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1991.
proto-socialism of his final year. Nor does
Essien-Udom, E. U.,
he even hint at the controversies regard-
EXCELLENT
Black Nationalism: A Search for an Identity in
ing the assassination. Most disturbing,
America. Chicago, IL: The University of
however, is that he has in a sense 'decul-Chicago Press, 1962, 1971.
tureď Malcolm in the most fundamental
FREELANCE
Goldman, Peter,
ARCHIVAL
way. This is most obvious in the scenesThe Death and Life of Malcolm X. 2nd edition.
Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1979.
dealing with the period of his life when
Malcolm was a hood. What happened to
FILM
'Detroit Red's' "Daddy O's," a term heFor Young Readers:
White, Florence M.,
surely must have used? Although zootMalcolm X: Black and Proud. Il lus. by Victor
suited and conked, he never extends hisMays. Champaign, IL: Garrard, 1975.
RESEARCHER
palm and asks Shorty to "Slap me some
skin." He doesn't even slow-drag one foot
By Malcolm X:
behind him as he 'pimps' down the street.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X. With the
He does not notice, much less ogle, anyassistance of Alex Haley. NY: Ballantine, 1965,
Film History Researcher
STOCK SHOT FOOTAGE
RESEARCHER AVAILABLE
woman's round behind. I found myself
1992.
asking, "What's up wi' that?" I was look-By Any Means Necessary. Edited by George
Breitman. NY: Pathfinder Press, 1970, 1992.
ing at a Malcolm Little with "a hole in his
soul."
FOR YOUR DOCUMENTARY, FILM, VIDEO,
AD, OR BOOK. ALSO HAVE LONG-TERM
Malcolm X, February 1965: The Final
Speeches. Edited by Steve Clark. NY:
EXPERIENCE AS GRANT WRITER/GRANT
This denuding of the early Malcolm of Pathfinder Press, 1992.
specifically black cultural qualities exemMalcolm X on Afro-American History. Revised
plifies the dilemma faced by any African- edition. Edited by Steve Clark. NY: Pathfinder
American filmmaker who wants to attract
Press, 1990.
mass, or crossover, market dollars. When Malcolm X Speaks. Edited by George
he or she views white filmmakers and
their works as the primary models,
tolerance level and cultural biases of the
white audience become critical. The nat-
RESEARCHER, AND CAN ASSIST YOU IN
CREATING A DEVELOPMENT PLAN.
For resumé and credit list , contact :
R.A.R0T0NDI
Breitman. NY: Pathfinder Press, 1965, 1989.
Malcolm X: The End of White World
the
Supremacy: Four Speeches. Edited by
Benjamin Goodman/Karim. NY: Merlin House,
799 Greenwich Street, NYC 10014
or phone 212 989-2025
1971, 1992.
ural consequence is the rather breezy and
Malcolm X: The Last Speeches. Edited by
Perry (with Steve Clark). NY: Pathfinder
ill-fitting cultural representations of
Bruce
African-Americans found in Malcolm X.
Press, 1989.
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