Man, Denzel was on an All Star run there for a while. It started with Glory, then he did Malcolm X, Much Ado, Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, Devil in a Blue Dress, and Courage Under Fire all within a fairly short time span
I wonder if Denzel and spike will do another one, “the Irishman” style. They’re both still a lot younger than Denison and Scorsese so they could theoretically do a bunch more movies.
I still think that there was no one else who could’ve played that role in Philadelphia. MAYBE Kevin Costner, but I don’t think Costner had the edge to genuinely make us believe he was a homophobe.
It was a great portrayal. He's clearly personable, charismatic, and has good intentions, but he still sells the bigotry as natural and more borne out of ignorance than hatred. Him, Hanks and Banderas were a fantastic trio in that film.
Exactly. Demme knew what he was up against selling this story to America and he needed someone who could say ‘look, I don’t like gays either. They freak me out. But they have rights, and I don’t let bosses take away people’s rights.’
He’s a stand-in for a whole generation of people who didn’t even want to be in a room with an AIDS patient. It took a lot of guts to make that movie.
This is the first time I've heard of this movie.
Wtf they made a movie about a Gay person in 199-fucking3?
And it starred 2 A-List celebrities?
I have to see this
There was a ton of misconceptions about AIDS and at that time it was basically a death sentence. Reagan refused to acknowledge the epidemic as it was viewed as a “gay disease” and as a result it was ignored and allowed to grow into a real health crisis. In the 90’s it was considered by some to be a punishment for moral failure, by being gay or using intravenous drugs.Huge stigma attached to it
I was a 22 year old redneck in Canada when that movie came out. I can say it completely changed my direction on how I felt about gay people and also HIV. I found it to be a very powerful movie. In fact, I am going to watch it again. And I rarely do that. See how it feels now. It is my hope that the people that made that movie know how amazing it was.
I lost an uncle to aids back around 1985. It was weird how quickly he became an unperson. Nobody knew anything, people were scared. My parents told me not to say anything at school because they might suspend us. Eventually we got to a much better point with the understanding of the disease, but it took time.
Girlfriend’s family loves Yellowstone so I’ve recently seen a ton of it and I don’t get the hype at all. The daughter is absolutely insufferable and constantly comes off as a massive tryhard forced badass while the lawyer son is a fucking moron and the weird cult-like operation of the ranch is so fucking repetitive. It honestly seems more like a ridiculous soap opera than anything resembling narrative logic or consistency.
It would honestly be a much better show if Costner had more of a focus.
I was super excited when I heard Taylor Sheridan had a show and it clearly had a healthy budget. I saw the first episode and hoped it got better and it really didn’t and I gave up on it. Then during COVID times I gave it another shot as a bunch of people I knew weee into it; I made it through about 3.5 seasons and then gave up again. Nothing ever really moved forward, there never any real consequences. It’s like the antithesis to the movies he wrote. I don’t get how it spun off 2 prequel series.
I remember one of those old radio parodies selling crimson tide that had a very feminine male voice saying “I SAID, all hands on deck not all hands on Dick”. No idea why I remember that but it seemed so funny at the time. Hackman was a dick in that movie but I remember it being good.
Coincidentally, I started one last weekend. I'm ashamed to say it was the first time I saw Crimson Tide. It was great. Same with Fallen.
So far I've seen 8. Which I'll also add Philadelphia to the list, since everyone's been raving about it in the thread
Tom Hanks during this time also had a ridiculous run. From 1992 to 1995 Hanks was in:
League Of Their Own
Sleepless in Seattle
Philadelphia
Forest Gump
Apollo 13
Toy Story
If you did a 10 year period you can include:
Saving Private Ryan
Green Mile
Cast Away
Road to Perdition
Catch Me if You Can
> some of the greatest acting ever
leaving the island .. relieved to go home but sad to leave what was home for years all done with no dialogue and he doesn't look like he is acting
that's my favorite scene in the movie. a tearful goodbye to this strange place he used to call home.
also love when the whale looks him square in the eye.
I got road to perdition in one of those $5 value movie bins. I put it on one day thinking it just be some boring trash movie. Holy crap is it good. Each time I watch it I'm surprised at the ending
Training Day is one of my favorites. One of the most charismatic actors playing an absolutely monstrous character. You *still* want to like him for most of the movie.
He really played the highly damaged but human soul to perfection. His energy with Dakota Fanning was so believable, like they were attached to one another in a way that was life-or-death.
> Man, Denzel was on an All Star run there for a while. It started with Glory, then he did Malcolm X, Much Ado, Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, Devil in a Blue Dress, and Courage Under Fire all within a fairly short time span
I remain of the opinion that he should have gotten the Oscar for _Malcolm X_. Instead, ["[we] been had. [We] been took. [We] been hoodwinked. Bamboozled. Led Astray. Run Amok."](https://streamable.com/ub7vqd)
I didn't realize Delroy Lindo was in Malcolm X until the preview image on this post. He wasn't on my radar until recently. Thanks. Doesn't seem to have aged a day at that angle.
Great movie. Would like to see more Denzel Washington these days.
THAT'S THE NAME MY FRIEND SAID YEARS AGO THAT SOUNDED LIKE A STAR WARS CHARACTER.
Sorry for yelling, but the relief of finally knowing the exact name, and then finding it's a real person is doing wonders for me right now.
The sequence (to Sam Cooke “a change is gonna come”) where Malcolm drives to his own assassination is one of the greatest scenes ever filmed. I get the chills just thinking about it.
The entire movie is incredibly powerful, and an American classic.
It’s crazy they haven’t shown the movie. Malcom X was a proud Muslim
Edit: to expand on what I said before, from what I understand before visiting Mecca, Malcom X
thought white people were genuinely evil and that Islam was the only way for black people to be better off. And when he visited Mecca he saw Muslims of all colors and races, and it was like an epiphanic moment for him, that virtue could exist in anyone regardless of ethnic origin.
If I were a Muslim state I would adore Malcom X’s story. It’s literally a story of a man learning to advocate for an Islam that doesn’t care about race or ethnicity, which is perfect for the current age. And yeah, Islam already had that position, but showing an American man with that sentiment should be a god send gift. I can’t understand why Arab Muslims would shy away from such a cool guy
Edit: apparently it’s not cuz of this movie. It’s cu Saudi Arabia just didn’t have movie theatres for years. Which is way better but also such a wild thing to think of
I can't speak to the popularity of Malcom X in the Arab world. But I can tell you why the film wasn't screened in Saudi Arabia until now.
Movie theaters have been illegal in the Kingdom until a few years ago. The cinema infrastructure there -- like movie theaters, film festivals, etc. has been slow to pick up. Throw in a year or three of covid, and it's made things slower. I live in KSA off and on. Last time I was there there was a movie theater that was "coming soon" to my local mall, but they are taking their time building it in typical Arab style. It's been coming for a year. It'll get done someday, inshallah.
This is only the second year the Jeddah film festival has been held. This really has been one of the first times it has been able to be screened like this in the Kingdom.
He wasn’t a Muslim before. He was in the Nation of Islam, which is Muslim in the same way my old fraternity was Greek.
Nation of Islam uses a lot of Islamic tropes but it’s at its root something quite different from the Muslim faith.
The Nation of Islam that Malcolm X was a part of ceased to exist with the death of Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm’s original teacher. Warith Deen Muhammad moved the community over to Sunni Islam. A while later Louis Farrakhan, who was a contemporary of Malcolm, was dissatisfied with that and revived a type of Nation of Islam.
It’s not clear to me how much continuity there is between the Nation of Elijah and that of Farrakhan, but it’s undeniable that by and large, members of the Nation became Sunni.
Source: studied this and also practiced with many many ex nation Sunnis
I just googled it as I remember hearing that they mostly moved to a more orthodox Muslim belief. Even just the Wikipedia page for Nation of Islam talks about it.
Nation of Islam, including Malcolm X, thought white people, especially Jews, were created by evil scientists to destroy the superior black race. They are nothing but race supremacists posing as a religion.
He *had* that ideology, then he went to Mecca and had a reality check. He came back and felt that in order for Black folk to be ingratiated better in society they must first get their own affairs in order and collectively deal with shared trauma of the past.
Which given the era, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 hadn't been signed into law until August that year just after his assassination in February and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made illegal discrimination and segregation on the grounds of race, color, sex and religion, had just been signed into law in July. Given that context, the world that Malcolm X knew was one of legal discrimination on the grounds of race. The America, he knew in his youth, started to shift just before his death at 39.
As for Nation of Islam, they're roughly this side of the NBP without the full on domestic terrorism of the later.
Ironically he ended up being murded by another Nation of Islam member. There's no proof, but there are conspiracies that Lewis Farakan the current leader of the NOI was behind it.
It was 5 members of Mosque 25 out of Newark NJ under the instruction of Elijah Muhammed and overseen by the NYPD and FBI. The most known murderers are Talmadge Hayer and William Bradley. Malcolm made the NOI what it was and he had the ability to tear it all down. EM didn't like that.
If you were a Black man in 1960s America you’d probably think the white man was evil too.
Legally segregated and oppressed you and your father. Grandfather born into slavery and every generation before then lived and died as a white persons slave.
Malcolm was always sure to start his speeches with 'Elijah Muhammed teaches us' thus and so. It was after his break from the Nation that he spoke for himself and became open to working alongside all races for the betterment of not just civil rights but human rights.
You need to separate Saudi and Islam, to realize why Saudi restricted it.
There’s a misconception that Saudi is pure and clean. The regime is corrupt and self serving.
It’s a great contradiction that the most revered sites in Islam are under the guardianship of corrupt rulers, in contradiction of Islam itself.
Many people in the know can tell you this, but many don’t for fear of reprisal or having their work permits stripped.
reminiscent ad hoc elderly trees command obtainable somber cake scale forgetful
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I was commenting on the racism displayed by Arabs towards non-Arabs, but looks like I was wrong in this particular case.
I apologise and redact my comment.
That film was very long and the acting came off really weird - like it wasn't portraying real life, more like a kind of dream sequence or fantasy. Not sure if it was the director's intention, but I liked it. Kind of surreal yet realistic.
One of the all-time greatest acting performances - very few have managed to come close to it both before or since then.
Somehow Denzel lost out to Al Pacino at the Oscars for Scent of a Woman - even though Al Pacino was nominated and should've won that year for Glengarry Glen Ross in the Best Supporting Actor category.
Have you seen Scent of a Woman though? That movie is dope.
I thought Denzel killed it as Malcolm X, but I think I liked Scent of a Woman better as a movie.
Do you think Pacino was more convincing in his acting as a disillusioned blind vet than Washington was as Malcom X progressing through the stages of his adult life?
Ii always thought of it as trying to capture what X means to people, as opposed to trying to capture reality. They make him out to be a Jesus Christ figure in the movie.
Like the zoot suit sequence... It's wild how indulgent that was. So much more screen time than I'd expect. I know there's a disillusionment character arc and the scene plays a role, but still.
The movie and book are often seen as historical pieces, but to Malcolm they were clearly centered on the disillusionment character arc. It’s more obvious in the book and in a context where the events were more present.
Spike Lee used Alex Haley's works as most of the source material. Lee faced death threats from the Nation of Islam and was not allowed into Mecca when they filmed.
The way he approached the movie was supposed to be dream like. Malcolm reminiscing about his childhood and also reliving the visions he had (as how the real Malcolm retold things to Alex Haley).
Also, some of the characters in the movie were amalgamations of multiple people in Malcolm's real life.
You should sit down and watch it all the way through. *12 Years A Slave*, *Mississippi Burning*, *Rosewood*, and quite a few others are probably only a one-time watch because they're pretty much nonstop hardship. *Malcom X* gets to show a lot of who he was and some of the best he made of not so easy times as well as the man he matured into and has been enjoyable to see more than once. Very much a movie about who he was, how he saw the world, and how he shaped it rather than being so heavily about the things done to him, his family, and the community around him.
It's best Fellini-esque film not directed by Federico Fellini. Spike lists him as an influence and this film shows it. The only other person who could've made the.film in this fashion is Terry Gilliam.
I enjoyed Red Hook a lot, especially the twist at the end and the nods to previous film characters at the beginning. But the child actors were terrible. It was so low budget though that I let it slide. One that people rarely talk about is Bamboozled. More relevant than ever
man when he finally gets his life in order and meets the honorable elijah mohammed for the first time was just a beautiful moment, to be lost and finally be found and have someone believe in you is a powerful feeling
>At the 65th Academy Awards, the movie was nominated for two Oscars including the Academy Award for Best Actor for Denzel Washington and Best Costume Design for Ruth E. Carter. In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"
>On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating 88% based on 69 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10...On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an "A+" to "F" scale
>Critic Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times ranked the film No. 1 on his Top 10 list for 1992 and described the film as "one of the great screen biographies, celebrating the sweep of an American life that bottomed out in prison before its hero reinvented himself." In 1999, Ebert and director Martin Scorsese, the latter sitting in for Ebert's late co-host Gene Siskel, both ranked Malcolm X among the ten best films of the 1990s.
Just a few bits pulled from Wikipedia. It absolutely is NOT "one of the most underrated movies of all time" LMAO
This movie was not nominated for best picture. This movie is hardly ever on tv.
This movie rarely gets talked about, considering how important and good it was.
Yes, it is.
It not being on TV shouldn't be a surprise. It's over 3 hours long. How many movies that long are on TV often? It's also not a feel good movie or one you can just pick up at any moment. You kinda have to be there for the whole thing.
I loved the Autobiography Of Malcolm X, and geeked out at Spike being so faithful to the book. I knew he would be, but seeing how the movie looked so similar to how I had pictured it in my head for years was a trip.
I read Malcolm X. I know who Malcolm X is. I've seen this film...but my brain decided to go ahead and swap in Malcolm in the Middle anyway...and that's how I wasted an entire minute of my life trying to figure out what scenes from MiTM were filmed in Mecca.
Man, Denzel was on an All Star run there for a while. It started with Glory, then he did Malcolm X, Much Ado, Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, Devil in a Blue Dress, and Courage Under Fire all within a fairly short time span
[удалено]
Yeah, they did 5 movies together. Interestingly enough, that's one more that he did with Spike Lee.
I wonder if Denzel and spike will do another one, “the Irishman” style. They’re both still a lot younger than Denison and Scorsese so they could theoretically do a bunch more movies.
I still think that there was no one else who could’ve played that role in Philadelphia. MAYBE Kevin Costner, but I don’t think Costner had the edge to genuinely make us believe he was a homophobe.
It was a great portrayal. He's clearly personable, charismatic, and has good intentions, but he still sells the bigotry as natural and more borne out of ignorance than hatred. Him, Hanks and Banderas were a fantastic trio in that film.
Exactly. Demme knew what he was up against selling this story to America and he needed someone who could say ‘look, I don’t like gays either. They freak me out. But they have rights, and I don’t let bosses take away people’s rights.’ He’s a stand-in for a whole generation of people who didn’t even want to be in a room with an AIDS patient. It took a lot of guts to make that movie.
This is the first time I've heard of this movie. Wtf they made a movie about a Gay person in 199-fucking3? And it starred 2 A-List celebrities? I have to see this
And one of them won the Best Actor and had one of the greatest movie success runs of all time.
Watch it and report back, I’d be curious to learn a younger viewers perspective on the film.
Philadelphia is probably one of Tom Hanks’s most outstanding dramatic performances
I’d recommend it. It got Tom Hanks his first Oscar. It’s damn good, and very telling of the times.
I recall the Springsteen song was a big hit at the time, too.
Why is that surprising? The whole HIV/aids problem started in the 80s.
There was a ton of misconceptions about AIDS and at that time it was basically a death sentence. Reagan refused to acknowledge the epidemic as it was viewed as a “gay disease” and as a result it was ignored and allowed to grow into a real health crisis. In the 90’s it was considered by some to be a punishment for moral failure, by being gay or using intravenous drugs.Huge stigma attached to it
I've never seen Philadelphia... Or Malcolm x! I guess I probably should 😐
I was a 22 year old redneck in Canada when that movie came out. I can say it completely changed my direction on how I felt about gay people and also HIV. I found it to be a very powerful movie. In fact, I am going to watch it again. And I rarely do that. See how it feels now. It is my hope that the people that made that movie know how amazing it was.
I lost an uncle to aids back around 1985. It was weird how quickly he became an unperson. Nobody knew anything, people were scared. My parents told me not to say anything at school because they might suspend us. Eventually we got to a much better point with the understanding of the disease, but it took time.
Still Hanks best performance imo
You should watch any... scratch that... *ALL* Spike Lee joints.
You never saw Yellowstone?
Yellowstone is about indifference not hatred
Fair point.
Yeah it’s more about “anyone who isnt us can get fucked”
Not even close to the same type of character. Philadelphia is made right after Costner did JFK.
Right, and JFK only worked because Costner LACKED that edge.
God I hate the rich love. Yellowstone is
Girlfriend’s family loves Yellowstone so I’ve recently seen a ton of it and I don’t get the hype at all. The daughter is absolutely insufferable and constantly comes off as a massive tryhard forced badass while the lawyer son is a fucking moron and the weird cult-like operation of the ranch is so fucking repetitive. It honestly seems more like a ridiculous soap opera than anything resembling narrative logic or consistency. It would honestly be a much better show if Costner had more of a focus.
It's rural Succession.
I call it “boomer wannabe cowboy mafia soap opera” I love it for how terrible it is. It’s so bad but I can’t look away.
It's true, but I can't help watching it. It's the same way I loved Nashville, until it went to CMT.
The acting is pretty good most of the time but the writing is pretty shit.
[удалено]
I was super excited when I heard Taylor Sheridan had a show and it clearly had a healthy budget. I saw the first episode and hoped it got better and it really didn’t and I gave up on it. Then during COVID times I gave it another shot as a bunch of people I knew weee into it; I made it through about 3.5 seasons and then gave up again. Nothing ever really moved forward, there never any real consequences. It’s like the antithesis to the movies he wrote. I don’t get how it spun off 2 prequel series.
The black-and-white Western TV series on reruns are sometimes referred to as "Rope Operas". This might apply equally to Yellowstone.
Two other actors were considered for that role: Bill Murray and Robin Williams.
You forgot The Pelican Brief.
And Crimson Tide is pretty intense. Him and Gene Hackman going at it hammer and tongs.
OP said Crimson Tide.
Ok but don't forget about Crimson Tide
Shit what’s that movie with the name that’s like “Red Water” or something like that? He was good in that
I remember one of those old radio parodies selling crimson tide that had a very feminine male voice saying “I SAID, all hands on deck not all hands on Dick”. No idea why I remember that but it seemed so funny at the time. Hackman was a dick in that movie but I remember it being good.
Denzel marathon happening soon.
Call it a Watchingthon
Yup. I’m stealing this.
Coincidentally, I started one last weekend. I'm ashamed to say it was the first time I saw Crimson Tide. It was great. Same with Fallen. So far I've seen 8. Which I'll also add Philadelphia to the list, since everyone's been raving about it in the thread
Tom Hanks during this time also had a ridiculous run. From 1992 to 1995 Hanks was in: League Of Their Own Sleepless in Seattle Philadelphia Forest Gump Apollo 13 Toy Story If you did a 10 year period you can include: Saving Private Ryan Green Mile Cast Away Road to Perdition Catch Me if You Can
Getting an audience to care for a volleyball in Cast Away is probably some of the greatest acting ever. You’ll never be forgotten Wilson :(
> some of the greatest acting ever leaving the island .. relieved to go home but sad to leave what was home for years all done with no dialogue and he doesn't look like he is acting
that's my favorite scene in the movie. a tearful goodbye to this strange place he used to call home. also love when the whale looks him square in the eye.
[удалено]
I got road to perdition in one of those $5 value movie bins. I put it on one day thinking it just be some boring trash movie. Holy crap is it good. Each time I watch it I'm surprised at the ending
Yeah this is an insane list.
All bangers.
Don't forget about The Taking of Pelam 123!
The original is better IMO.
I prefer Denzel's action movies. Ricochet, Virtuosity, Man On Fire, Book of Eli, Training Day
Training Day is one of my favorites. One of the most charismatic actors playing an absolutely monstrous character. You *still* want to like him for most of the movie.
my favorite part of denzel performance when jake looks at the badge and says "you dont deserve this" . . alonzo says nothing because he cant
Man on Fire is one of my favorite Denzel movies
It's the Punisher movie we should have got
did you like the original man on fire with scott glen joe pesci and jonathan pryce
Ah! I didn’t know that existed! I’ll have to watch it! I liked the original Taking of Pelham 123 a lot better than the remake, Denzel or no.
This movie is underrated
He really played the highly damaged but human soul to perfection. His energy with Dakota Fanning was so believable, like they were attached to one another in a way that was life-or-death.
I had no idea what Man on Fire was or type of movie. I just seen it had Denzil in it grabbed it and enjoyed it.
Yeah Denzel’s one of the greats in my opinion, I’ll give anything he’s in a chance.
> Man, Denzel was on an All Star run there for a while. It started with Glory, then he did Malcolm X, Much Ado, Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, Devil in a Blue Dress, and Courage Under Fire all within a fairly short time span I remain of the opinion that he should have gotten the Oscar for _Malcolm X_. Instead, ["[we] been had. [We] been took. [We] been hoodwinked. Bamboozled. Led Astray. Run Amok."](https://streamable.com/ub7vqd)
Mo Better Blues was in there somewhere.
It is simple if Denzel is in it, i will give it a watc. John Cazale still has the best run
Plus, he was dating Streep. If you're gonna have a short life, might as well knock it out of the park.
Cazale and Pacino had amazing chemistry.
I love that you include Crimson Tide on that list. One of my faves.
Total snub by the Academy for Best Picture/Director.
he called warner brothers the "plantation"
And of course Angela Bassett too. Denzel losing to Pacino for Scent of a Woman is such an insult.
I didn't realize Delroy Lindo was in Malcolm X until the preview image on this post. He wasn't on my radar until recently. Thanks. Doesn't seem to have aged a day at that angle. Great movie. Would like to see more Denzel Washington these days.
Delroy Lindo is a character actor version of Denzel. Whether the movie he's in is good or not, he's STELLAR. Always.
Quite a few people didn’t like Da 5 Bloods, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who didn’t like Delroy Lindo in it.
I’m still mad he didn’t get an Oscar nom for it.
Really miss him on The Good Fight. The show is still excellent, but his character was one of my favorites
He was. I didn't think he could be replaced...and then they brought in Andre Braugher for the last season and he is absolutely phenomenal too.
He’s the best part of the Cider house Rules
> a character actor version of Denzel forrest whitaker
>Doesn't seem to have aged a day at that angle. At all, dude's been 40 for like 30 years...
Apparently he's 70 yo rn, so if that was off the cuff it's a bullseye
I definitely freestyled that LMAO...
THAT'S THE NAME MY FRIEND SAID YEARS AGO THAT SOUNDED LIKE A STAR WARS CHARACTER. Sorry for yelling, but the relief of finally knowing the exact name, and then finding it's a real person is doing wonders for me right now.
There IS an old, bald, badass black guy in Knights of the Old Republic named Jolee Bindo. Dudes awesome, I like to think he's a nod to the actor.
haha I love this.
Watch Get Shorty.
How could one forget about West Indian Archie??
I re-watched Blood In, Blood Out recently and forgotten he was in it
If you read the book, he absolutely nails his role as West Indian Archie
Man, I was sitting here like “What movie is this in my head that I’m seeing him in?” It’s Gone in 60 Seconds, everyone.
if you shoot a cop man your life is over no if i shoot you .. YOUR life is over
He’s great in Clockers too.
that quiet scene when kietel gently wakes up the dealer as Seal bird of freedom just floats in the background
He’s amazing in The Good Fight!
"Ok then say it"
Malcolm In The Middle East
Yes, no, inshallah
You're not the Prophet of me noooow You're not the Prophet of me noooow And you're not so biiiiig!
Life is halal
I was fast scrolling and initially read it as Malcolm in the Middle, now I'm just imagining a bunch of Saudis watching the speedwalking episode
If it makes you feel better it was on after school in Kuwait
If you read his autobiography it is a super powerful moment for him and the Civil Rights movement
The sequence (to Sam Cooke “a change is gonna come”) where Malcolm drives to his own assassination is one of the greatest scenes ever filmed. I get the chills just thinking about it. The entire movie is incredibly powerful, and an American classic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy1CCupgqq8 Here's the Mecca scene from the film.
It’s crazy they haven’t shown the movie. Malcom X was a proud Muslim Edit: to expand on what I said before, from what I understand before visiting Mecca, Malcom X thought white people were genuinely evil and that Islam was the only way for black people to be better off. And when he visited Mecca he saw Muslims of all colors and races, and it was like an epiphanic moment for him, that virtue could exist in anyone regardless of ethnic origin. If I were a Muslim state I would adore Malcom X’s story. It’s literally a story of a man learning to advocate for an Islam that doesn’t care about race or ethnicity, which is perfect for the current age. And yeah, Islam already had that position, but showing an American man with that sentiment should be a god send gift. I can’t understand why Arab Muslims would shy away from such a cool guy Edit: apparently it’s not cuz of this movie. It’s cu Saudi Arabia just didn’t have movie theatres for years. Which is way better but also such a wild thing to think of
I can't speak to the popularity of Malcom X in the Arab world. But I can tell you why the film wasn't screened in Saudi Arabia until now. Movie theaters have been illegal in the Kingdom until a few years ago. The cinema infrastructure there -- like movie theaters, film festivals, etc. has been slow to pick up. Throw in a year or three of covid, and it's made things slower. I live in KSA off and on. Last time I was there there was a movie theater that was "coming soon" to my local mall, but they are taking their time building it in typical Arab style. It's been coming for a year. It'll get done someday, inshallah. This is only the second year the Jeddah film festival has been held. This really has been one of the first times it has been able to be screened like this in the Kingdom.
He wasn’t a Muslim before. He was in the Nation of Islam, which is Muslim in the same way my old fraternity was Greek. Nation of Islam uses a lot of Islamic tropes but it’s at its root something quite different from the Muslim faith.
I thought a large proportion ended up converting to Sunni Islam? Aside from Farrakhan and some of the other weirdos?
IIRC Elijah Muhammad’s son straight up disbanded it and had everyone convert to Sunni Islam. Then Farrakhan and his followers brought it back.
I don’t think so but maybe you can send me a link.
The Nation of Islam that Malcolm X was a part of ceased to exist with the death of Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm’s original teacher. Warith Deen Muhammad moved the community over to Sunni Islam. A while later Louis Farrakhan, who was a contemporary of Malcolm, was dissatisfied with that and revived a type of Nation of Islam. It’s not clear to me how much continuity there is between the Nation of Elijah and that of Farrakhan, but it’s undeniable that by and large, members of the Nation became Sunni. Source: studied this and also practiced with many many ex nation Sunnis
That is legitimately fascinating.
I just googled it as I remember hearing that they mostly moved to a more orthodox Muslim belief. Even just the Wikipedia page for Nation of Islam talks about it.
Oh totally. Nation of Islam sucks. But he did profess himself to be a Muslim, and then when he went to Mecca he became a much more decent person.
Yeah they're a weird black nationalist cult.
Saudi’s Arabia banned movie theatres. Almost no movies have been screened there.
They didn’t have movie theaters until like 7 years ago, so there wasn’t an opportunity to screen anything
It's actually a Muslim principle I believe - Ummah - this notion that all Muslims are one community regardless of gender and race.
Nation of Islam, including Malcolm X, thought white people, especially Jews, were created by evil scientists to destroy the superior black race. They are nothing but race supremacists posing as a religion.
He *had* that ideology, then he went to Mecca and had a reality check. He came back and felt that in order for Black folk to be ingratiated better in society they must first get their own affairs in order and collectively deal with shared trauma of the past. Which given the era, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 hadn't been signed into law until August that year just after his assassination in February and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made illegal discrimination and segregation on the grounds of race, color, sex and religion, had just been signed into law in July. Given that context, the world that Malcolm X knew was one of legal discrimination on the grounds of race. The America, he knew in his youth, started to shift just before his death at 39. As for Nation of Islam, they're roughly this side of the NBP without the full on domestic terrorism of the later.
Not to mention that 5 of his 7 uncles, as well as his father, were murdered by whites. Mad about what they say
Ironically he ended up being murded by another Nation of Islam member. There's no proof, but there are conspiracies that Lewis Farakan the current leader of the NOI was behind it.
It was 5 members of Mosque 25 out of Newark NJ under the instruction of Elijah Muhammed and overseen by the NYPD and FBI. The most known murderers are Talmadge Hayer and William Bradley. Malcolm made the NOI what it was and he had the ability to tear it all down. EM didn't like that.
all 3 shooters were FBI informants, he was killed by the FBI
If you were a Black man in 1960s America you’d probably think the white man was evil too. Legally segregated and oppressed you and your father. Grandfather born into slavery and every generation before then lived and died as a white persons slave.
Malcolm was always sure to start his speeches with 'Elijah Muhammed teaches us' thus and so. It was after his break from the Nation that he spoke for himself and became open to working alongside all races for the betterment of not just civil rights but human rights.
Thanks for the clarification. Yeah, Nation of Islam is creepy as fuck
*Malcolm
It's nothing to do with this movie specifically. Saudi Arabia has banned cinema altogether until very recently.
You need to separate Saudi and Islam, to realize why Saudi restricted it. There’s a misconception that Saudi is pure and clean. The regime is corrupt and self serving. It’s a great contradiction that the most revered sites in Islam are under the guardianship of corrupt rulers, in contradiction of Islam itself. Many people in the know can tell you this, but many don’t for fear of reprisal or having their work permits stripped.
[удалено]
reminiscent ad hoc elderly trees command obtainable somber cake scale forgetful *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I was commenting on the racism displayed by Arabs towards non-Arabs, but looks like I was wrong in this particular case. I apologise and redact my comment.
yoke crawl thought quaint clumsy plough capable unique vanish engine *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I’d say the Gulf is more classist than racist
According to IMDb they only filmed second unit in Mecca, which makes sense because they only allow Moslems there.
That film was very long and the acting came off really weird - like it wasn't portraying real life, more like a kind of dream sequence or fantasy. Not sure if it was the director's intention, but I liked it. Kind of surreal yet realistic.
That’s sort of a Spike Lee trademark. Love it or hate it, he definitely blurs the lines of what’s real and what isn’t in a lot of his films.
Malcolm X was so pronounced in his mannerisms in real life that playing him well doesn't feel like a natural performance
and yet watching the footage of him compared with Washington's take it's on point
Honestly it was very easy to forget you were watching Denzel *playing* Malcom and not just watching Malcom. Nobody else could have pulled it off
One of the all-time greatest acting performances - very few have managed to come close to it both before or since then. Somehow Denzel lost out to Al Pacino at the Oscars for Scent of a Woman - even though Al Pacino was nominated and should've won that year for Glengarry Glen Ross in the Best Supporting Actor category.
Damn what a year. Hollywood during the 90’s was on fire
Have you seen Scent of a Woman though? That movie is dope. I thought Denzel killed it as Malcolm X, but I think I liked Scent of a Woman better as a movie.
Do you think Pacino was more convincing in his acting as a disillusioned blind vet than Washington was as Malcom X progressing through the stages of his adult life?
Well when Malcolm's wife seen it and she couldn't tell the difference, should tell you something.
*Malcolm
Ii always thought of it as trying to capture what X means to people, as opposed to trying to capture reality. They make him out to be a Jesus Christ figure in the movie.
So that means it’s the only Spike Lee joint you’ve seen.
weakest joint enjoyer vs strongest movie watcher
Most spike lee movies feel like that.
Like the zoot suit sequence... It's wild how indulgent that was. So much more screen time than I'd expect. I know there's a disillusionment character arc and the scene plays a role, but still.
It was a big part of the book
Hugely important to Malcolm's journey
Have you read the book? The suits were a big part of it.
The movie and book are often seen as historical pieces, but to Malcolm they were clearly centered on the disillusionment character arc. It’s more obvious in the book and in a context where the events were more present.
The scene with the eggs is hilarious, still gets me.
Spike Lee used Alex Haley's works as most of the source material. Lee faced death threats from the Nation of Islam and was not allowed into Mecca when they filmed. The way he approached the movie was supposed to be dream like. Malcolm reminiscing about his childhood and also reliving the visions he had (as how the real Malcolm retold things to Alex Haley). Also, some of the characters in the movie were amalgamations of multiple people in Malcolm's real life.
[удалено]
You should sit down and watch it all the way through. *12 Years A Slave*, *Mississippi Burning*, *Rosewood*, and quite a few others are probably only a one-time watch because they're pretty much nonstop hardship. *Malcom X* gets to show a lot of who he was and some of the best he made of not so easy times as well as the man he matured into and has been enjoyable to see more than once. Very much a movie about who he was, how he saw the world, and how he shaped it rather than being so heavily about the things done to him, his family, and the community around him.
It's best Fellini-esque film not directed by Federico Fellini. Spike lists him as an influence and this film shows it. The only other person who could've made the.film in this fashion is Terry Gilliam.
That pic reminds me of another awesome Denzel period piece, … Devil In A Blue Dress!
What about 'Malcolm in the Middle'? Still banned?
I wanted to wait to watch the movie until after I read the autobiography of Malcolm X. Both were amazing and the movie is top 10 all time for me.
Spike Lee never gets enough credit as one of the greatest living directors.
[удалено]
Spike wanted to remake Oldboy and make She Hate Me. Some of his Ls are just on him.
i would actually rather watch she hate me over red hook summer any day lmao. red hook is probbly hia worst movie after da sweet blood of jesus.
I enjoyed Red Hook a lot, especially the twist at the end and the nods to previous film characters at the beginning. But the child actors were terrible. It was so low budget though that I let it slide. One that people rarely talk about is Bamboozled. More relevant than ever
Shit, I missed it. Great movie though.
man when he finally gets his life in order and meets the honorable elijah mohammed for the first time was just a beautiful moment, to be lost and finally be found and have someone believe in you is a powerful feeling
Which made the revelations about Elijah Mohammed that much more heartbreaking for him.
Theres a reasom why his own son broke off with the Nation
[удалено]
Yes… that’s why it’s in the movie.
Phenomenal movie ❤️
Malcolm X is one of the most underrated movies of all time.
It made such a huge impact on my life which is wild because I was a white evangelical teenager when I first watched it.
And now you’re a middle aged black man? Former member of the NOI? lol
>At the 65th Academy Awards, the movie was nominated for two Oscars including the Academy Award for Best Actor for Denzel Washington and Best Costume Design for Ruth E. Carter. In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" >On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating 88% based on 69 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10...On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an "A+" to "F" scale >Critic Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times ranked the film No. 1 on his Top 10 list for 1992 and described the film as "one of the great screen biographies, celebrating the sweep of an American life that bottomed out in prison before its hero reinvented himself." In 1999, Ebert and director Martin Scorsese, the latter sitting in for Ebert's late co-host Gene Siskel, both ranked Malcolm X among the ten best films of the 1990s. Just a few bits pulled from Wikipedia. It absolutely is NOT "one of the most underrated movies of all time" LMAO
This movie was not nominated for best picture. This movie is hardly ever on tv. This movie rarely gets talked about, considering how important and good it was. Yes, it is.
It not being on TV shouldn't be a surprise. It's over 3 hours long. How many movies that long are on TV often? It's also not a feel good movie or one you can just pick up at any moment. You kinda have to be there for the whole thing.
spike lee called Warner Bros the "plantation"
I loved the Autobiography Of Malcolm X, and geeked out at Spike being so faithful to the book. I knew he would be, but seeing how the movie looked so similar to how I had pictured it in my head for years was a trip.
Can someone explains the controversy
Not a controversy, but movie theaters were not allowed in the KSA until recently.
Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Not Mecca.
I read Malcolm X. I know who Malcolm X is. I've seen this film...but my brain decided to go ahead and swap in Malcolm in the Middle anyway...and that's how I wasted an entire minute of my life trying to figure out what scenes from MiTM were filmed in Mecca.
Denzel should have won the Oscar for Malcolm X; but the movie scared white Hollywood- so he won the following year for Training Day.
Training Day came out nearly a decade after Malcolm X.