Talk:Malcolm X (1992 film)/Archive 1

Untitled
This article was nominated for deletion on December 2, 2005. The result of the discussion was Speedy Keep. An archived record of this discussion can be found here.

Move
Theres no reason to have this page at Malcolm X (1992 movie) when it should be at Malcolm X (movie), so I've moved the page. Saul Taylor 09:18, 21 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Trivia
"Dr. Seuss is referenced in this movie a few times in the beginning, but not again." WTF? Es-won 22:47, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Malcox x.jpg
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Fair use rationale for Image:Malcolm X DVD-front.jpg
Fair use added. SkierRMH 07:06, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Removal of uncited and trivial material
The material below was removed from the main article for two reasons. Firstly, it is uncited material. It makes claims which need to be substantiated through reliable, verifiable and notable. The second reason is, quite simply, because it is trivia. It needs to be converted into a paragraph or two. Until that time, it cannot return to the article.


 * Other depictions
 * In the 1979 TV miniseries Roots: The Next Generations, Malcolm was portrayed by Al Freeman, Jr. Freeman portrays Elijah Muhammad in Malcolm X.
 * In two TV movies about the life of Muhammad Ali which aired in 2000, Malcolm was portrayed by Gary Dourdan (King of the World) and Joe Morton (Ali: An American Hero).
 * Jeff Stetson's 1987 one-act play The Meeting depicts a fictional, clandestine encounter between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X shortly before Malcolm's assassination. In a 1989 American Playhouse production of the play, Jason Bernard portrays Dr. King and Dick Anthony Williams portrays Malcolm.
 * At the age of nine, Denzel Washington's son John David Washington made a cameo appearance in the film as a student in a Harlem classroom.
 * Angela Bassett reprised her role as Betty Shabazz in the 1995 film Panther, which was directed by Mario Van Peebles. Coincidentally, Van Peebles played Malcolm X in the 2001 bio-pic Ali.
 * Morgan Freeman portrayed Malcolm X in the 1981 television movie "Death of a Prophet." The film depicts the seven days preceding Malcolm X's assassination on February 21, 1965.


 * '''Sources and omissions
 * The eulogy that Ossie Davis delivers over the documentary footage of Malcolm X's life near the end of the film is excerpted from the one that he wrote and delivered himself at Malcolm's actual funeral in 1965.
 * The book The Autobiography of Malcolm X details how most Nation of Islam ministers turned against Malcolm at Elijah Muhammad's behest. Among them was Louis X, who is today known as Louis Farrakhan. Some have suggested that Farrakhan was complicit in Malcolm's assassination. But Lee avoids this subject entirely, and Farrakhan is conspicuously absent from the film.
 * The late Dr. Betty Shabazz was this film's project consultant.
 * Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, a member of the Nation of Islam in the early to mid-1960s, was a personal friend of Malcolm. However, he also shunned Malcolm after his expulsion from the Nation. These events are also absent from the movie, but director Michael Mann depicts them in the 2001 film Ali, with Will Smith as Ali and Mario Van Peebles as Malcolm.
 * Baines, portrayed by Albert Hall, is a fictional character. His primary role in the film&mdash;to introduce prison inmate Malcolm Little to the Nation of Islam -- was filled in real life by Malcolm's siblings, and by a fellow inmate named Bimbi.


 * Technical trivia
 * The title credits of this film include footage of the beating of Rodney King.
 * The names of the three assassins charged with Malcolm X's murder are listed in the final credits of the film.
 * After the assassination scene, all footage of Malcolm X is of the real man, most of it in black and white.
 * The last song played during the closing credits is "Revolution" by Arrested Development. The song was the only contemporary song included on the film's soundtrack.
 * The scenes of the JFK assassination are taken from Oliver Stone's JFK (1991). In this film, Vincent D'Onofrio is credited as playing Bill Newman (a witness to the Kennedy shooting), the same character he played in Stone's film.
 * In the film's final scene, South African anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela&mdash;recently released after 27 years of political imprisonment -- appears as a schoolteacher in a classroom in Soweto. He recites a portion of one of Malcolm X's most famous speeches, including:
 * We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence... - Malcolm X
 * The final phrase, “by any means necessary”, was omitted from the end at the request of Mandela who felt he could not utter this phrase on camera, believing the South African government would somehow use it against him politically. Instead, actual footage of Malcolm X speaking the words "by any means necessary" was shown in the last few seconds of the film.
 * The final phrase, “by any means necessary”, was omitted from the end at the request of Mandela who felt he could not utter this phrase on camera, believing the South African government would somehow use it against him politically. Instead, actual footage of Malcolm X speaking the words "by any means necessary" was shown in the last few seconds of the film.


 * Cameos
 * Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale and civil rights activist Al Sharpton make cameo appearances as street preachers.
 * Left-leaning attorney William Kunstler appears as a judge.
 * Civil rights activist Wyatt Tee Walker appears as a hospital spokesman.
 * One of Malcolm's daughters, Ilyasah Shabazz, appears as a follower at Temple #7.

- Arcayne   (cast a spell)  10:56, 17 January 2008 (UTC)


 * It doesn't need to be converted into a paragraph, lists are totally acceptable. Being uncited isn't a good reason to remove something, unless you actually believe it's inaccurate or unverifiable. The information in these sections looks like it would generally be pretty easy to verify.P4k (talk) 01:28, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
 * And there's nothing wrong with trivia either.P4k (talk) 01:29, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Actually, it does. Please see WP:NOT; we aren't here to supply random bits of information culled from the back fo DVD covers or our favorite chatty cathy forum. Being uncited is a primary reason for removal. this is an encyclopedia, not a fan forum or some other hack site.
 * As I said in the section, once you verify each piece of information, you can convert it into paragraph form and re-add it to the article. Not before. Btw, I noted the addition of the YouTube link. We don't use that here in Wikipedia. If yoiu doubt any bit of this, please feel free to consult an admin. You can find a complete list of them here. - Arcayne   (cast a spell)  07:17, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Total gross
It would be nice to know the total gross, including VHS and DVD sales. Anyone have a source? --mboverload @ 06:52, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Malcolm X & Ali movies
Trivia: I'v no source for this, but the drawing of Joe Louis in the Malcolm X movie (where there's a celebration of Louis KO'ing of Coon), is the exact same drawing used, to represent Muhammad Ali, in the Ali movie staring Will Smith. GoodDay (talk) 17:09, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Aalmuhammed v. Lee 202 F.3d 1227
The case stems from a claim of joint authorship of the film Malcolm X and is taught in most Intellectual Property classes. As this is my first post, I didn't want to make additions to such a major article on my own.

SwaniJD (talk) 20:51, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

"Apparition of Muhammed"
The article doesn't refer to any controversy surrounding the "apparition of Muhammed" appearing in the film. Is this an omission or did this pass without controversy? 2.220.110.216 (talk) 14:23, 14 March 2015 (UTC)

Lead -- recent edit
The reason I removed "fellow criminal" was because it was in the 1st para of the lead, creating an impression that Malcolm X was best known as a criminal. I thought, woah, wait a minute, that's not how we remember him. Original:
 * "Lee has a supporting role as Shorty, a character based partially on real-life acquaintance Malcolm "Shorty" Jarvis, a fellow criminal and jazz saxophonist."

I think the problem could be solved easily if this sentence (either in original or revised form) be moved further down into the lead. Would that work? K.e.coffman (talk) 23:52, 15 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Sorry I misunderstood your edit summary ("this does not look like it belongs"). Malcolm Jarvis was a member of Malcolm Little's criminal gang in Boston in the 1940s. (Malcolm X referred to him as "Shorty" in his autobiography.) After prison, he became a jazz saxophonist of little renown. As I recall, having seen the film several years ago, Spike Lee took some liberties and made Shorty into a bigger character in the movie than he was in the autobiography (the source on which the script was based) or biographies of Malcolm X. That's certainly his prerogative as a writer and director.


 * To be honest, I think the sentence in the lead could be shortened to "Lee has a supporting role." It comes after a list of the film's stars and precedes a list of celebrity cameos, and neither of those groups include identification of the actors'/celebrities' roles. — Malik Shabazz Talk/Stalk 00:10, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, this makes sense. I made the change to make the sentence shorter; please see diff. I think this flows better and the level of detail was unneeded in the lead. K.e.coffman (talk) 00:27, 16 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Thank you. Much better. — Malik Shabazz Talk/Stalk 00:32, 16 January 2018 (UTC)

Changes from book
This article could use some stuff about the changes from the book(/reality) maybe -- like there's no mention of Baines being a composite character of Malcolm's brother and Bimbi, among some other pretty big deviations from reality. DemonDays64 (talk) 18:29, 16 May 2021 (UTC)