{"id":250192,"date":"2025-05-21T08:38:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T08:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/americanstudies-may-21-2025-malcolm-xs-100th-lees-film\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T08:38:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T08:38:16","slug":"americanstudies-may-21-2025-malcolm-xs-100th-lees-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=250192","title":{"rendered":"AmericanStudies: May 21, 2025: Malcolm X\u2019s 100th: Lee\u2019s Film"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

[May 19th<\/sup><\/a> marks the
\n100th<\/sup> birthday of Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X<\/a>. So this
\nweek I\u2019ll AmericanStudy a handful of cultural representations of Malcolm,
\nleading up to a special weekend post on what we can learn from Malcolm here in
\n2025!]<\/p>\n

Three
\ninteresting contexts for Spike Lee\u2019s epic 1992 biopic<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>A Long-Gestating Script: One of my favorite
\nthings about writing this blog is how much I learn from researching just about
\nevery post, even on subjects about which I have some starting point knowledge
\n(which isn\u2019t always the case, to be clear). Case in point: I had no idea that
\nthe original screenplay on which Lee based his film had been written, or at
\nleast started, in the late 1960s, by none other than James Baldwin<\/a> (collaborating
\nwith the formerly blacklisted screenwriter Arnold
\nPerl<\/a>). Baldwin was never quite able to crack the code of adapting Malcolm\u2019s
\nautobiography into a screenplay, and the project subsequently passed through a
\nnumber of other talented hands, from David
\nMamet<\/a> to David
\nBradley<\/a> among others. But when Lee took over as the film\u2019s director (more
\non that in a moment), it was Baldwin and Perl\u2019s
\nscreenplay<\/a> to which he returned, and so this 1990s film truly had 1960s
\nroots. <\/span><\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>An Alternative Director: If that long-gestating
\nscript was one reason why it look a good while to make Malcolm X<\/i>,
\nanother was that a different Hollywood director was initially attached: Norman
\nJewison<\/a>, who had made In
\nthe Heat of the Night<\/a><\/i> (1967) among many other acclaimed films over his
\nlong career. A number of African American artists and critics, including Spike
\nLee himself, protested
\nthat move<\/a>, however, arguing that a Black filmmaker should be the one to
\ndirect this marquee project. Producer Marvin
\nWorth<\/a> (who had been attached to the project since the days of Baldwin and
\nPerl\u2019s initial screenplay) ultimately agreed and asked Jewison to step down in
\nfavor of Lee, but it\u2019s interesting to think about what version of the film
\nJewison might have made\u2014and we have some indications of an answer when we look
\nat the civil rights film Jewison made with star Denzel Washington later in the
\ndecade, The
\nHurricane<\/a><\/i> (1999). At the very least, the two films make for an
\ninteresting pairing!<\/span><\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>An Interesting Request: In any case, Lee did
\ndirect the film, and the result (while to my mind a bit long and meandering at
\ntimes) is an impressive and important biopic, featuring a career highlight performance
\nfrom Denzel (which is a competitive category to be sure). Shortly before the
\nfilm was due to be released in late 1992, Lee put out a controversial
\nrequest<\/a> that students skip school to attend screenings (and that adults
\ntake the day off from work, but the school idea received more pushback). As an
\neducator and a parent, I understand why people might have resisted the idea;
\nbut as an educator and a parent, I also agree with Lee that education and development
\ntake multiple forms, and that cultural works have an important role to play in
\nthose processes. Hell, my entire elementary school missed class for an assembly
\nwhere we watched the \u201cThriller\u201d music video\/short film (true story); and while
\nI enjoyed those dancing zombies like everyone one, I\u2019d say the best cinematic
\nrepresentation to date of Malcolm X is a slightly more worthy reason to miss school!
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Next
\nMalcolmStudying tomorrow,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben<\/span><\/p>\n

PS. What
\ndo you think? Representations or other sides of Malcolm X you\u2019d highlight? <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[May 19th marks the 100th birthday of Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X. So this week I\u2019ll AmericanStudy a handful of cultural representations of Malcolm, leading up to a special weekend post on what we can learn from Malcolm here in 2025!] Three interesting contexts for Spike Lee\u2019s epic 1992 biopic. 1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A Long-Gestating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12032],"tags":[16855,13299,989,50416,30215],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-250192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-history","tag-100th","tag-americanstudies","tag-film","tag-lees","tag-malcolm"],"yoast_head":"\nAmericanStudies: May 21, 2025: Malcolm X\u2019s 100th: Lee\u2019s Film - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=250192\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AmericanStudies: May 21, 2025: Malcolm X\u2019s 100th: Lee\u2019s Film - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[May 19th marks the 100th birthday of Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X. 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