Van Sant's "Malcolm X"

Rating: Null/10 (27 March 2009)

Two of the most genuine and unique voices in American cinema still belong to Gus Van Sant and Spike Lee, even though, beyond being expert film makers, both are totally far apart in topic matter. They came of age in the business in the indie eras of the 80's and 90's (Van Sant's "Mala Noche" was in '85; Lee's "She Gotta Have It" was in '86, I believe.) Even though they do commerical films (VS: "Good Will Hunting"; "Finding Forrester"; Lee's "Inside Man"), they produce films for the formerly unheard markets of blacks and gays and do so in a way to humanize them. Sometimes of their films are a miss, and a lot succeed financially and critically, but they always do things their way.
In "Milk," Van Sant chooses someone he admires like Lee found personally in "Malcolm X" (Why Denzel W. didn't receive a win, is beyond me, but that's another story.) Again, the heroes are different between the two. Malcolm and Harvey were far from the white middle class acceptance values in films, and I suppose if you did a study of their individual histories and these films, you could find a lot of differences and similarities, but I invite you to see both films again, and notice that both directors allow their main character to be human beyond the history pages and the documentaries and the documents.
One thing Milk and Malcolm share is a desire to be someone beyond who they are, even with their insecurities. And each director is confident in his abilities to show these insecurities these struggles, their confusion, their ability to lead people, their triumphs, and ultimately, the price for being different even in their own communities, which lead ultimately to their deaths. Anyone who can read can read a book out loud about facts and figures and a sub par director do the same thing on film. Skilled directors allow a character to be human and this makes all the differences.
With all due respect to the Academy, Penn's win does not make him a better actor than Washington. (Penn is a great actor; Washington is a great actor. Period.) A gold statue doesn't make you any better or worse. My advice to you is to see both films and see how good acting, good writing, and good direction brought two characters from history to life on the screen if only for a few hours or so.