Alex Moss EditorIn the history of cinema there has not been a filmmaker as important, as celebrated or as powerful as Spike Lee in examining race relations. Almost without fail his films give a distinct and essential voice to what it means to be black in the United States of America. From his early films such as Do The Right Thing through to more recent and equally celebrated films like BlacKkKlansman and Da 5 Bloods, Lee is an unrelenting filmmaker who is rightly revered as one of the most important of this or any other era of the silver screen.
While most of Lee’s films are rightly celebrated it is Malcolm X that often feels like his most important and masterful film. Here is a black filmmaker depicting one of the most significant black figures in US history. Crucially, Malcolm X and Spike Lee have always felt cut from the same cloth, men who stand up for what they believe and have a clear moral compass of how they will achieve their goals. Their voices are loud, proud and pack a punch.
Lee’s depiction of Malcolm X’s life is an unflinching one. From his traumatic childhood, his days hustling and stealing, a prison stretch and his conversion to Islam, X is a man desperate to find his place in the world. But when he finds it, he’s a force of nature, a wrecking ball in a world of glass. It is this that feels like Lee as a filmmaker. He might not always have a distinct visual style but there is always a tone of ferocity to Lee’s films. A furnace burning within them with a message so powerful it threatens to melt the screen
Here is the story of a man so ingrained in the fabric of society that every beat is like a slap in the face. An “oh it was like that” series of moments that has you stunned at every turn. It is a film that feels like a wake-up call of “look how far we’ve come, but look how far we still have to go.”
Every shot feels big and important with a colour pallet that packs a serious punch. Ernest R Dickerson’s cinematography has never looked so good as it does in this 4K transfer. There is a vibrancy to the film, the early scenes conjuring X’s sense of identity, all vibrant colours before it gradually fades to a more muted, almost intentionally black and white tones.
Lee’s use of montage, especially during Malcolm’s chest thumping speeches is incredible. Taking what is already a poignant moment and amplifying it. In doing so he is reminding us; this isn’t fiction, this happened, this matters, these events shaped the world and society we now live in.
For everything Lee has done with the film perhaps his greatest accomplishment is casting one of the greatest actors ever in the title role. Denzel Washington is always an incredibly compelling screen presence, as Malcolm X he is transcendent. Playing X across key stages of his life, from the cocksure crook, through the terrified prisoner and then the inspiring, proud statesman-like leader. At every stage Washington disappears into Malcolm X, the look is incredible, the performance jaw-dropping. In a career of best in class roles, Washington gives a tour-de-force as Malcolm X.
An essential film by a filmmaker who never pulls his punches with a leading actor who gives a colossus of a performance, Malcolm X is as powerful now as it was when it was released over 30 years ago.
Malcolm X is on 4K UHD and Blu-ray 29 July from Icon Film Distribution
