From: isbell@ai.mit.edu (Charles L Isbell)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: Re: Malcolm X
Date: 20 Nov 92 10:06:59
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
NNTP-Posting-Host: panther.ai.mit.edu
In-reply-to: 's message of Thursday, 19 Nov 1992 08:35:57 CST

<U28698@uicvm.uic.edu> writes:
|I just saw 'Malcolm X' yesterday at its opening in Hyde Park
|(Chicago).  Even though I've read every single word on or by this man
|(that I've been able to get my hands on), I was still absolutely
|absorbed in this film. 

It was absorbing.

|About the fear of riotting, I went to see The Hunt for Red October at
|this same theater, and when I was leaving, a swarm of seemingly fifty
|people ran up to the guys in front of me, and beat the HELL out of
|them (with weapons).  This didn't even make the local newspaper.

|On the other hand, I went to see New Jack City at THIS SAME THEATER,
|and when I was leaving, I guy got knifed, and this made NATIONAL NEWS.

Remember all the hoopla over _Do The Right Thing_?  Everyone expected
riots.  There were none.  Did any critics apologize?  Not that I've
read.

Was there broad outcry over the violence attendant with the showing of
_Goodfellas_?  Comments like "Don't let your [White] people see this
film--they'll riot." (that's a quote a woman made abotu DTRT with the
appropraiate change in race)?  Not that I've read.

|The media tells you only what they want to tell you.  Whether it's a
|race issue , or a ratings issue, or both I'm not gonna comment, but I
|think you know the answer.

|Do yourself a favor.  Watch this film.  You're NOT gonna get knifed
|or beaten.  Spike Lee's too smart to let that happen.

|This is a beautiful movie.  Unlike JFK, it's 100% fact (unless, of
|course malcolm X is full of crap, NOT).  Unlike Gandhi, it's
|authentic and doesn't make any group of people seem evil.  Unlike
|Lawrence of Arabia, it includes reality with it's poetry.

It's not 100% fact for storytelling reasons.  Baines, for example,
did not exist, he is a combination of the several people who
influenced Malcolm while he was in jail, including his brothers.

|If you live in Chicago and are afraid to see this film.  Then tell me, I'll go
|with you.  I'll watch this movie ten times if I can afford it.

Strong points:  the directing and use of focus & color to convey
mood; use of black-and-white to show when Malcolm was being defined by
the media instead of being allowed to define himself; Terence
Blanchard's score; the acting of Denzel Washington and AL Freeman Jr;
use of sweeping camera angles to convey emotion; the ending, allowing
us to reflect and absorb our experience.

Weak points:  length of time seems somewhat unclear at various spots.
Film needed another 10 or 15 minutes to get some of this across, I
think. 
--
Peace.
                     "When society acknowledges you as one of its victims 
                      rather than one of its members, it no longer has 
                      any responsibility to help you."
                                - Kyle Baker, Why I Hate Saturn
                                   -\--/-
    Don't just adopt opinions     |  \/  |       Some of you are homeboys
          develop them.           |  /\  | but only I am The Homeboy From hell
                                   -/--\-

Xref: sparky rec.arts.movies:33475 rec.games.trivia:3496 bit.listserv.cinema-l:8323 rec.arts.tv:22478