After about 15 years i decided to watch this on dvd again.
I was basically a kid the last time i watched this. As a kid, i fucking loved this movie. But now as a adult i have a more objective view of it. Its still a great movie, in my alltime top 5 and Denzel deserved a oscar (tho it bugs me that denzel doesn't look like malcolm, of course Denzel cant control that)
Couple issues...
Spike completely made up the baines character (man who introduced malcolm to the noi in prison). Intead it was letters from his siblings that introduced malcolm to the noi. That kind of annoyed me.
In the movie they claim betty was already a member of the noi when she met malcolm, she wasn't.
imo spike lee should not have played shorty. He should have let another actor play the role.
They left out the fact that it was Elijah's son who told malcolm about Elijah's extramarital affairs. And hearing it from Elijah's own son made him go and speak to the women, to hear their stories for himself.
There were also other things the noi was doing n not doing that made malcolm upset. That futher added to the divide between he and Elijah.
But im sure due to time, he couldn't add that extra stuff. The movie is already 3 1/2 hours.
Overall this movie is dope af. Even tho its long af, it breezes by. Pacing is great. It gives equal time to malcolm b4 the noi, during it and after the noi.
Ofcourse the noi and malcolm have a very complicated relationship. And yes, its common knowledge the noi did kill malcolm and its very likely the fbi or cia were aware of the hit b4 hand. Whether or not Elijah gave the direct order, i cant say. But the negative way Elijah was speaking of malcolm b4 and after his death didnt help the matter.
Thug tears was still on deck when ossie Davis starts his eulogy at the end. Powerful ending.
Imma check out the Netflix doc on malcolm now. Even tho we already kno killed malcolm
