From: HF.GTD@forsythe.stanford.edu (Gabrielle Daniels)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Subject: Re: The Sabotage of Malcolm X
Date: 5 Jan 1993 16:55:41 -0800
Organization: Stanford University
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: morrow.stanford.edu

In article <1993Jan5.221919.7552@porthos.cc.bellcore.com>,
dem2@pyuxd.uucp (Me) writes:
>It appears that there are forces at work that are trying to hinder
>the success of Spike Lee's _Malcolm X_ movie (and also thwart the
>communication of Malcolm's important message to the masses). There
>have been 3 incidents that I know of -- two from the news and one
>that happened to me personally:
>
>1) In the St. Louis area, people buying tickets for _Malcolm X_
>were given tickets for other movies instead (such as _Home Alone 2_)
>and still allowed to see _Malcolm X_. All profits from these sales
>went to the movie printed on their stubs, hence shortchanging the
>producers of _X_.
.
.
.
Yeah, there's been evidence of this. Someone posted a similar report
of such antics a few hundred messages ago...

>2) In Dallas, a janitor discovered a pipe bomb under a seat in a
>theater shortly before _Malcolm X_ was due to be shown. Fortunately,
>the bomb was disabled before  anyone was hurt.
.
.
.
Never heard of that kind of stuff at the Century 10...

>3) I saw the movie twice when it first opened: once in Detroit
>and a second time several days later in Natchez, Mississippi.
>The second time I noticed something strange -- some key events
>were happening out of order (compared to the first, which I
>knew was "correct" from reading the autobiography). As soon as I
>noticed this I went to talk to an usher -- I was thinking that the
>movie was on multiple reels, and one reel was just being shown out of order.
>The usher escorted me to the projection room, and to my surprise,
>the movie was all on one big reel.  Somehow the movie had been
>spliced together out of order on one reel. I went to speak to the
>manager and he said that they had just received that "new" copy of the movie.
>A friend of mine who had seen the movie in that same theater a few days
>earlier confirmed that the movie was different her first time too. The manager
>offered no explanation for the movie being out of order, and just
>remarked that people would just think there were a lot of flashbacks!
>I finished watching the movie, but the scrambling was really bad.
>Intentional or not, it made Malcolm look confused and/or two-faced:
>
.
.
.
(Stuff deleted, of course.)

Never heard of this one, too.  At the very least, a rather untrained
projectionist. But insist on your rights as a customer!
.
I saw Malcolm finally at the Century 10 this weekend.  I wept at the
end, really.  Of course, I did hiss that conversation between Elijah
Muhammad and Malcolm about black women.
.
The man was a bodhisattva, a person who deeply cares for the lives
of others.  This was particularly true when he went back to the old
neighborhood and hunted up West Indian Archie and others to try to
save their lives. When he couldn't, he went out and tried to help
other black people.
.
The man never took a dime for his own self-aggrandisement!  He and
his family hardly had any clothes, they didn't own their own home,
nothing, while NOI members took all the bread, dissed and finally
killed him. Horrible.  Just sad and horrible. Can we say the same
about Jesse? and some of these other brothers who are leaders?
.
And while the credits ran and Aretha Franklin sang, it was doubly
sad for me to hear her sing, "Some Day, We'll All Be Free," an old
Donny Hathaway song.  Donny Hathaway, remember him?  Donny either
jumped or was pushed off a hotel window in New York, during his last
recordings with Roberta Flack in the late Seventie-early Eighties.
I heard he had been distraught that his 15 minutes of fame had ended
and he was reduced to singing with Roberta. Now his 15 minutes has
come back again, but is Donny around?
.
The original version of "Some Day, We'll All Be Free" is on the CD,
"Extensions of a Man." Another favorite off this CD is "I Love the
Lord, He Heard My Cry" and "I Love You, More Than You'll Ever Know,"
an Al Kooper cover.