Spike Lee and Life History of Malcolm X: Involvement in Criminal Activities and Racism - Essay Example

Movie Report Malcolm X, the film by Spike Lee, is based upon a Muslim- American (Malcolm X)’s life history. Lee makes use of flashback technique to unearth the most important happenings in Malcolm X’s life in the mainstream society. Besides, Lee provides ample importance to social criticism based upon crime, racism, religious conversion and emotional/mental trauma originating from family problems. Thesis statement: Spike Lee’s film Malcolm X mirrors the protagonist’s transformation from a criminal to a religious/social reformer (special references to the personal/public problems like emotional/mental trauma, crime, racism etc). The most important features of the film are discussed under. A. Emotional/mental trauma The film portrays the emotional/mental trauma felt by Malcolm "Detroit Red" Little (later known as Malcolm X) in his personal life. One can easily identify that the grass root level reason behind his earlier life as criminal was the problems in his personal life. One can see that untimely death of his father affected his development as a child. Besides, his mother’s status as a single parent eventually led to metal illness and its after-effects. So, emotional/mental trauma felt by Malcolm is the integral part of the film. B. Crime Crime is not the main theme of the film because the film aims to unveil Malcolm’s transformation from a criminal to a religious reformer and a leader. But Malcolm’s earlier life was interconnected with crime and incarceration. So, the director did not neglect Malcolm’s earlier life as a criminal. Reynolds points out that “The film moves back and forth in time, showing how the brutality affecting Malcolm’s family history is internalized through his transformation into “Red” the gangster” (64). To be specific, economic problems forced him to lead the life of a criminal. For instance, in the film, Malcolm and his friend conducted a robbery, which ultimately led them towards incarceration. C. Racism The director makes use of an indirect way to introduce the theme of racism in the film. Malcolm’s life in the prison, especially his friend’s influence, is significant in educating him on racism. But Baines (Malcolm’s friend) utilizes the chance to attract him towards Islamic faith, not to fight against racism and related issues. In the end, Malcolm was ready to change his views on racism because religious conversion did not help him to solve his problems. D. Religious perspective Malcolm’s transformation from a criminal to a religious leader did not help him much to reform his community. To be specific, his transformation as the member of the Nation of Islam and the follower of Elijah Muhammad limited his scope as a social reformer. For instance, his views on racism were influenced by Islamic ideology. In the film, his increased influence among the members of the Nation of Islam forced Elijah Muhammad to turn against him in the end. Character sketches Malcolm X, Betty X, Baines and Elijah Muhammad are the most important characters in the film. A. Malcolm X (Denzel Washington): Malcolm X is the protagonist of the film and almost all the characters revolve around this character. Besides, the protagonist’s transformation from a criminal to a religious/ social reformer is the most important factor behind the development of the plot. Lee provides ample importance to the character of Malcolm because this character represents the historical development of religious/ social reformation in the mainstream society. B. Betty X (Angela Bassett ) In the film, Betty X is Malcolm X’s wife. But she does not have any particular influence upon her husband. Her role in the film is overshadowed by Malcolm’s character. From a different angle of view, Malcolm’s wife is entrapped within her domestic domain. Within this context, her role was to look after her children, not to influence her husband. In some situations, she acted the role of a medium for Malcolm to communicate with his followers. For instance, when he was in Mecca, he used his wife as a medium to communicate with his followers. C. Baines (Albert Hall) The character of Baines is important because he was able to influence Malcolm and converted him to Islam. In the initial stages, he was the medium between Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad. Elijah Muhammad (Al Freeman, Jr. ) Elijah Muhammad is an important character in the film because Malcolm considered him as a guide in his life. Besides, he was the mastermind behind Malcolm’s conversion to Islamic faith. In the end, Elijah Muhammad became Malcolm X’s enemy and tried to harm him and his family. Reaction The film follows the most important events in Malcolm’s life. Within this context, the director does not try to make use of his individual freedom to create an independent mode of storytelling. For instance, the director cannot interpret the sequential events in the life of Malcolm in a different way because he was a prominent figure in the society. This limits the director’s freedom to create his own mode of storytelling. The director makes use of flash back technique to unearth the personal problems faced by the protagonist during his childhood. To be specific, the director did not provide much importance to Malcolm’s early life as a criminal. If he did so, the story will be limited to crime and incarceration. Within this context, the director was able to overcome this problem by providing ample importance to Malcolm’s life in the prison, religious conversion and his life as a religious/ social reformer. The film cannot be regarded as a one man show because the director was interested to provide importance to other characters like Baines and Elijah Muhammad. This technique of storytelling by providing equal importance to more than two characters proved to be successful. From a different angle of view, other characters like Baines and Elijah Muhammad were portrayed as influential but this limited Malcolm’s development as a social reformer. Malcolm’s interest in Islamic ideology limited his reformatory measures within his community. To be specific, the director’s idea to balance the most important events in the protagonist’s life in a sequential manner proves to be effective. In the film, female characters are not projected as important and they face the problem of marginalization. For instance, less importance is provided to Betty, Malcolm’s wife. In the film, Betty is portrayed as an unimportant woman with less influence upon her husband. This proves that the director is not interested to consider the female characters as equal to male characters. In addition, the director is interested to project the adventurous life of the protagonist and his development from a criminal to a social/religious reformer. On the other side, the female characters like Betty and Malcolm’s mother are not considered as important in the film. Both the female characters face a number of similar problems in their lives. For instance, Betty and Malcolm’s mother lost their husbands and were forced to be single parents. Within this context, the director neglects the hardships faced by the female characters. The director provides ample importance to the incidents in the life of Malcolm. On the other side, less importance is given to the problem of religious fundamentalism and hatred towards white people. In short, the film proves to be successful as a biographical portrayal of Malcolm X’s life. The film portrays Malcolm as a public figure but it fails to unveil his different roles in his private life as a son, lover, husband and father. Summing, Spike Lee makes use of the traditional mode of storytelling to unearth life history of Malcolm X. To be specific, Malcolm’s public life as a religious reformer hinders the director from unveiling the private areas of his life. The narrative technique (flash back) made use by the director is helpful to follow Malcolm’s transformation from a criminal to a religious/social reformer. Besides, sequential revelation of the plot is helpful to understand the problems faced by the protagonist, like emotional/ mental trauma, involvement in criminal activities and racism. Works Cited Reynolds, Mike. How to Analyze the Films of Spike Lee. Minnesota: ABDO, 2010.Print. Read More