I had the opportunity to watch Spike Lee’s Malcom X on the big screen.. This film follows Denzel Washington’s Malcom X from his younger years pedalling crime along with his accomplices Shorty (played enthusiastically by Spike Lee himself). During a stint in prison Malcom X becomes introduced to Nation of Islam and its leader Elijah Mohammed through another inmate. The film continues to document Malcom’s rise to prominent spiritual and religious figure, his marriage to nurse Betty (Angela Bassett doing the thing) and his eventual assination by his former associates.
I am someone who generally loves the boldness of Spike Lee’s filmmaking, but I do feel that recently he often doesn’t know when to pull back; however, I felt there was restraint showed here, relying on the visual flourishes here to enhance the storytelling.This is a film that is centered around the the magnetism of Denzel Washington’s performance – Lee knows that we are watching a masterclass of acting and gives Denzel the space. With Malcom becoming a larger than life figure in the second half of this movie the film relies on speech after speech, in what easily could have been repetitive Washington makes this performance effortless. Watching this movie nearly 35 years after release I can assuredly say movies like this are not made like this anymore. It’s also interesting to look back at actors like Delroy Lindo and wonder how he didn’t factor into the Oscar race for this, it still feels rewarding to see him get nominated for Sinners. Today a broad well received bio-pic like this would have been nominated for more than just Denzel and for its brilliant costumes. I would also like to think Denzel would win – but that says more about my thoughts on Scent of a Woman.
-James Narvey
