Malcolm X (1992) .
#MalcolmX (1992)
In a word:😳!
Remember when, *back* in the day, those "X" hats, and *every*one wanted one(did Sallu have one? but of course he did😂!)? I don't think it was entirely clear to us, half a world away, what the X even was for(but, in retrospect, definitely a lot cooler than Phil Jackson's XI🙄).
But, thanks to the late, *great* Barry Norman(🙏), I found out what that X was for, and the clips he showed, all of which I could not understand the context around(and probably still don't🤗), were *seared* into mind.
And, d*mn, Barry was right, the movie is quite *something*!
Right from that opening, the "Patton Flag," the Rodney King video(still shocking), the giant "X", and then three-and-a-half hours later, there's no question that you're in the hands of an American *epic* directed by an American *master*!
Man, is this thing an assault on *all* your senses, slapping you repeatedly across the face, refusing to let you sink back into the genteel rhythms of a dutiful, shopworn biopic,; attention, as they say, must be paid, and pay you will!
Honestly, not enough is said of the peak craftspeople Spike worked with: production designer Thomas(dude had a *lot* on his plate, man, a *lot*), the spectacular costumes by Carter(those colours🤩!), the music, as always, by Blanchard(the omnipresence under so many scenes, a hallmark?, a nice callback to the classic Hollywood studio era), the editing by Brown(can you imagine the *miles*, literally back then, of film he had to wrestle with😲?!), and of course, the *great*, great Dickerson whose fluid, probing, epic camerawork, seriously, it's astonishing that he never won an #Oscar for cinematography(I know he segued into directing, but still). I mean that spectacular shot in solitary with the cigarette ember(👏!), that incredible opening single-take shot(👏!)…I could go on and on(uh, I tend to do, no😂?)…
And that cast, oof! My g*d! Like, who *isn't* in there?! It's a cavalcade of once and future stars, ranging from blink-and-you-miss-'em cameos to key parts: Bunk! Esposito! Boyle! Mazar! Allen! Imperioli! McDaniel! Schiff! Smith! Plummer(an #InsideMan [p]reunion…sigh!)! And so many, *many* more!
The core supporting cast, there's the sympathetic Randle(man, she had some run there in the 90s, no?), McKee(so good in #TheCottonClub[a TBT story for another day😼!]), Vernon, Hall, dude, he's absolutely *key*, the creepy, enthralling Freeman Jr., Lindo, dude, Lindo, how on Earth did he not get more notice for this performance, overbearing, angry, chilling, ultimately, heartbreaking?!, and, of course, Bassett, going quiet-furious toe-to-toe with Prime Denzel…man, they *all* deserved noms(hey, that's what the FYC peeps get paid all those huge bucks for).
And speaking of…manohmanohmanohman! Yeah, look, those barn*burning* speeches("Plymouth Rock was landed on us", man, once and for all, I gotta ask TBH what that means🤔!), but the quiet, personal moments, the rapscallion pre-X moments, the ladies' man, the peoples' man, the family's man…quite simply, Denzel's the man!
And the man, at the center of it all, Lee! Dude, a filmmaking whirling dervish, he rakes us over the historical coals, he pulls out all the stops, I mean *all* the stops, and I cannot believe, cannot fathom, that the movie was not critically celebrated upon its release, and managed only two #Oscars noms. Two?! In what universe does it only get two noms?! I mean, seriously, take the movie, as-is(okay, maybe without the slightly dated celebrity end-credits footage😇), and submit it to AMPAS and it wins *all* the #Oscars…no ifs and or buts, it wins *all* of them!
TL; DR…un, no, TL is part of the story, so you have to "read" the whole thing! Even after all these years, you'll be flabbergasted!
PS. The Roseland Ballroom sequence, dude, why'd it take this long for Hollywood to let Spike make a musical…about Viagra…wut?! Ha! Can't wait, Spike *can't* wait!
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#SpikeLee #ErnestDickerson #WynnThomas #RuthCarter #TerenceBlanchard #BarryAlexanderBrown
#DenzelWashington #AngelaBassett #DelroyLindo #AlbertHall #AlFreemanJr #TheresaRandle #LonetteMcKee #KateVernon #ChristopherPlummer(🙏) #PeterBoyle(🙏)…and so many, many more!
@officialspikelee @wbpictures @warnerarchive
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