July 12th: MALCOLM X (Spike Lee, 1992)

The life of Malcolm Little, a former street hustler and petty thief who converted to Islam while in prison and became one of the most powerful and influential figures in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Malcolm managed to write his autobiography prior to his assassination, with Roots author Alex Haley. Producer Marvin Worth, who knew Malcolm back in his criminal New York City days, secured the rights in 1967 to turn Malcolm's life into a film. Over the next 20 years, various writers, actors, and directors were attached or involved, including Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Sidney Lumet, David Mamet, and writer/social activist James Baldwin. 

A resurgence in Malcolm's popularity in the late 1990s led to the film finally getting funded by Warner Bros. studio. Normal Jewison (Best Picture winner In The Heat Of The Night) was in talks to direct, leading to an outcry of disapproval from prominent black figures, including Spike Lee, who thought the film should be directed by an African American. After Jewison stepped away from the project, Lee was selected to replace him.

Lee was criticized by activists before production even began, with pre-emptive concern over Malcolm's depiction, including the casting of Denzel Washington. Lee made various changes to a script by Baldwin and veteran screenwriter Arnold Perl, both having already died in the interim, and brought on Malcolm's widow Dr. Betty Shabazz on as a consultant.

The film was shot on location in Boston, New York City, Egypt, South Africa (for a present-day appearance by Nelson Mandela), and in a major coup received permission to shoot in the Holy City of Mecca, first American/non-documentary to do so. Behind the camera was Lee's longtime cinematographer Ernest Dickerson.

Washington is joined in the cast by Angela Bassett as Shabazz, Albert Hall (Apocalypse Now), Delroy Lindo (Get Shorty, Lee's Clockers), Kate Vernon (TV's Battlestar Galactica), actress/composer Lonette McKee (Lee's Jungle Fever), Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark), Actor's Studio veteran Al Freeman, Jr., with brief appearances by Lee himself, Al Sharpton, Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale, and actor/activist Ossie Davis performing the same eulogy he wrote and read after Malcolm's death in 1965.

When the production went overbudget, Lee donated most of his own salary, but eventually the Completion Bond Company put a halt to any additional funding, and the studio gave him an ultimatum of a reduced running time. Various black celebrities including Prince, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Janet Jackson, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan came to the rescue with donations of their own.

Prior to the film's release, Lee was adamant about meeting only with black interviewers, angering some companies but also causing publications and networks to evaluate the diversity of their staffs. The film received very positive praise from critics, with Denzel Washington winning a fair number of year-end awards. At the Oscars, the film was only nominated for his performance and costume design, losing both. At the end of the decade, Roger Ebert and Martin Scorsese both selected it as one of the Ten Best Films of the 1990s.