Malcolm X Symposium Daily Notes Paper

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Posting Daily Notes: Reading the assigned readings and screening media at home are essential components of this course. There are two sets of questions: one for readings and one for screenings. These postings will help you to synthesize and organize your thoughts about what you learn.

This is a class about black freedom movement.

This week we learning about

Black Radical Memory: Malcolm X

Media Form: Mainstream Narrative Film

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Watching the screening

Malcolm X (Spike Lee, 1992)

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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 Accessed: 01-11-2019 01:11 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Cineaste Publishers, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Cinéaste This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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 4 CINEASTE This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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 CINEASTE 5 This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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- 6 CINEASTE This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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. CINEASTE 7 This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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. 8 CINEASTE This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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. CINEASTE 9 This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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 10 CINEASTE This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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 CINEASTE 11 This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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- 12 CINEASTE This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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 CINEASTE 13 This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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 14 CINEASTE This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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 CINEASTE 15 This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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 16 CINEASTE This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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, CINEASTE 17 This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 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. 18 CINEASTE This content downloaded from 128.195.79.221 on Fri, 01 Nov 2019 01:11:55 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms fax 212 989-4607 BETWEEN 10AM - OFM
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Running head: DAILY NOTES

Daily Notes
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DAILY NOTES
Daily Notes
Daily Notes Template for Readings [Template for Screenings Below]
Please add your notes and respond to each section below. You do not have to write in
complete sentences (unless you want to), but you do have to write in complete thoughts that
I can comprehend. Please do not exceed one-page per daily posting for the readings. If
there is more than one reading, use an abbreviation to distinguish the author (ex. for
Schmitt, Sch. or Daulatzai, D.)
List main ideas, concepts, arguments and any key* example (s):
About the readings, the primary idea entails the impact of Spike Lee on Malcolm X's
image. The reason for this is since the text states that Lee led to the creation of an iconic figure
and the portrayal of Malcolm as the messiah. In this perspective, the reading asserts that Lee
used Hailey's text as the primary document for the film, intensified Malcolm's humanity
personality, and conducted interviews with Betty Shabazz, Malcolm's friends, and family
members. These actions prove that Lee's efforts co...


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