Malcolm X

I've watched this movie twice and I would most certainly watch it again and again. It can never get old yet! You learn something new, something different each time you watch this. I recommend this movie to all ages and generations. To all nationalities and religions. You see in this movie how imperative it is to have knowledge because what you don't know, does in fact hurt you. You see in this movie what envy looks like, and what Love looks like also. Powerful movie. Get ready to be filled with knowledge, power and love

Man, I had sold my 2-disc DVD in order to add this to my BD collection and replace my DVD's with BDs (still waiting on the Shaft films and Suplerfy with surround sound!), but last year this got pushed back because their was a rights issue with Sam cooke songs in the film. They have it together now and I gather this is why this is priced higher. I would have waited until it came down, but I figured I would snatch it up in case something else came up!Let me start by saying that this comes in ones of those digibooks and this one is different from previous types. This has the two discs attached to the covers of the book while the book pages are in the center. This is strange I maybe it was done because it was two discs. The book IS of a higher quality than the others with embossed titles, so at least you think that you are getting some of your money's worth. The back has the disc specs on it and it is stuck on better than previous digibooks, but I still do not understand why they cannot just print it on the back cover so that we will never lose it!The movies is the same, the extras are the same as the 2-disc DVD, which is a good thing! the main thing was they the Malcolm X documentary from the DVD set was included here as well. It would have been nice if it could have been HD... They made the making of in an HD-like look or they just letter-boxed it, so why not make a FILM feature in widescreen? All in all, this really just an HD replacement of the 2-disc DVD.AUDIO: I watched this film hundreds of times since I first saw it when it came out. I can almost recite it line for line and I am very familiar with the scenes and people in this film as well as the sound. I always thought that Malcolm X had one of the better surround sound effects on DVD and for this largely dialog driven film, and the same startling soundtrack transfers over to Blu-Ray - with upgraded sound. Of course the quality is better and the best example of the sound is when Malcolm X begins his first duties preaching on the Harlem streets with Al Sharpton and Bobby Seale. THAT is a perfect use of surround sound panning and it stayed precise! THIS is the type of surround sound that ALL movies should have.4.5/5PICTURE: If you already owned the DVD, then you are more than aware of how clean and clear the picture is. It is so nice looking that when you watch it, you find it hard to believe that twenty years have passed! The first DVD release of Malcolm X was on a single side, dual-layer disc that was perfect for what I liked - seeing the DVD cover art. That disc, I knew, was stretching it to the limits because of the running time, but it made do. The second release spread the film out over two discs which I hate, but when the film is three plus hours long, I can deal with it more. The picture quality was maximized for DVD and it showed.Now with this Blu-Ray, I was always wondering what improvements could be made on the picture quality since it was already stellar. I assume that it would appear more film-like and I was not expecting too much more in the way of details. For the most part that is what you get here, although I have not viewed the DVD in over a year so I am going by memory. You do see film grain - mainly through the early part of Malcolm's life, before he was sent to prison. I believe that the grain and slightly smoother look was a style choice kind of like JFK. Once Malcolm becomes an official Nation of Islam member, the picture is as crisp and as clean as you expect it to be. This film quality always made me say that this is the reason that directors should not make the jump to straight digital FILMING just yet, as film can be scaled into the future better unlike a digital file.The truth is, you do see more details, but it is not the difference between night and day like most DVD to BD's are. I better noticed the rubber on Denzel's fake goatee and marks on faces than in the past (I also have a larger TV now too!)and the zoot suits patterns are clear and you can make out exactly what they are and the colors do not stick.5/5Is it an upgrade? Of course it is, but it is not a light speed jump ONLY because the source material was so good to begin with! Now, of course this is the best quality Malcolm X you will get on ONE DISC with supreme sound. If you have the single disc DVD of X, then get this. If you have the 2-disc set and you do not like having one film over two discs, then get this. If you want it is loss-less surround sound - get this!Now Warner Brothers, PLEASE give me the Shaft movies and Superfly with remastered soundtracks in surround sound! I also want the Bruce Lee films on BD edited (why not?) and the sound all-new! It is not as if those HAVE to be as they were. Someone do it!

Spike Lee directed Malcolm X superbly.

A classic.

I grew up in the civil rights era, whose public face for us (in the suburbs) was the reasonable MLKing. The other side - the violence and militancy, the hate that hate produced - was only dimly heard, seemingly much farther away. It was a great shock for me to read Haley's autobio, but utterly fascinating and important to understand who we Americans are.Spike Lee has taken the Haley version and grafted almost all of the important incidents into a single long film. In my viewing, it is almost completely successful in evoking an extraordinary life. You get the factual outline, and better yet the feeling for what it was like in X's times.From the opening, when he is swaggering in a zoot suit with Shorty, to his seething rage at the memory of how his family was dissolved by race hatred and lynching. It is superlatively acted by Washington, who is one of the greatest actors alive. You then follow X into crime, a dissolute life style, prison, redemption, the acceptance of fundamentalist mind programming, to a final stage of questioning it all. I completely believed the portrait of how he grew into all of these roles with extraordinary ease as well as the mercurial energy of a genius.Lee succeeds in making X a near archetype for the American experience for blacks but also for the entire society, which we must admit to ourselves is intimately inter-related. These are deep questions, and Lee is content to provoke, in my viewing, leaving the audience vexed and interested in finding out more. It is positively Brechtian in ambition, and here it truly works here. And there is a raft of extraordinary personalities who appear and re-appear, enabling us to see where they were able to go and what they could do.There are a few things that mar with the simplifications of the film medium. For example, there is the fate of the girl Laura, who is in the Haley book. While in real life she disappears from view though we learn what happened to her, you see X walk by her in his Moslem guise as she is about to service a client in a doorway. Other incidents are too succinct, such as his dismissal of the idealistic white girl who asked how she might help (which he later pointedly regretted), but then Lee had only 3 hours and there is so much to tell.Warmly recommended. X tells us all a lot about who we are as Americans and even as humans. I believe he continues to fascinate because he died at a moment when he was ripe with potential to change. This film made me weep, once again, as I did in my youth with the book.

Great movie, very nicely done! I honestly just wished that spike Lee would have (although important) spent less time on the Detroit Red years, and spent more time on his childhood. For example, go deeper into who his parents were. Not enough time were spent on them and how Malcolm was already had an sense of black pride from both parents being active members of the Marcus Garvey movement!

Malcolm X was different. He had heart. Passion. After all the troubles he committed, he still became a leader for the people. He went through many transformations and continued to expand his perspective. All the while, his presence, his voice never waivered. He was unapologetic and his words cut deep. There is much to learn from this man and I'll forever be inspired by his life's work. Denzel did a wonderful job playing this role and kudos to Spike Lee. Both the movie and book are great. May Malcolm's legacy forever live on.

Absolutely great film

As it happens in big films, with big moments come also less big ones.It is an important film, that covers the most important figure and moment in black people history.It is a cinematically rich film, where Spike adopts his most personal technique and touch to tell a almost Hollywoodian biopic.And it is maybe the first time he meets and challenges a big Studios production, and partially embrace its language and storytelling standards.Malcolm X has the grandeur that people like, in order to make it watchable and enjoyable to a wider audience, with inserts that come from independent cinema and from radical political views. Basically, Spike adopted Malcolm's strategy: "by any means necessary".So we end up loving Malcolm, no matter if we were already on his side. Spike get through to us and shows us the man behind the persona, the mistakes and the long journey that took him to a rethink his life, through that captivating and understandable style, through a really inspired Denzel Washington, who seems very committed into his role, and through some powerful scenes that keep our focus on the unfolding story, to the point that we forgive the director for the excessive duration of the film (some scene, especially in the first half, could be shorter or called off).The blu ray and the extra are excellent

Malcolm X was a great man who influenced millions through his teachings and words. This film does him justice, beautifully acted with a witty and intelligent screenplay - this is a must see for anyone. The ending is most tender with Nelson Mandela telling the next generation about Mr.X and how he taught our society to be more humane towards others. When the credits started to roll I felt all warm and teary eyed, evidence for a perfect film.

The film captures Mr. X's childhood, adolescence and then growing up to be a man and becoming more mature and open-minded. It's a shame he died at such a young age, leaving behind 4 little girls and a wife who was pregnant with twins. It is also a shame that many and I mean the press in particular, still to this day and onwards, label him as a "hate-monger". Now, the fact is that only those that are ignorant enough are blinded by the lying dogs. I will say no more about the film but if you have read about Malcolm X, and want to see a refreshing image of him, then this film delivers just that. I'll end my review with what brother Malcolm X said at the end of his autobiography, "To come right down to it, if I take the kind of things in which I believe, then add to that the kind of temperament that I have, plus the one hundred per cent dedication that I have to whatever I believe in - these are ingredients which make it just about impossible for me to die of old age ... I know that societies have often killed the people who have helped to change those societies. And if I can die having brought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that will help to destroy the racist cancer that is malignant in America - then, all of the credit is due to Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine."

This is one of the all time great performances and portrayals of a historical figure by a young Denzel Washington. Denzel is simply immense in this film, and this surely must rank amongst his greatest ever performances. He excellently portrays the life of a truly remarkable and fascinating figure in Malcolm X, going into real detail and giving the viewer a real insight into his life and time period. I would recommend this as essential viewing to anyone interested in Malcolm X, and particularly any students studying this area of Civil Rights, it really will provide a great overview of this period and plenty of detail around the key moments in the life of Malcolm X.

Epic Tale of Malcolm X who it must be said Washington bares an Uncanny Resemblance to.Its a slow burn flick that I supposed is paced this way on purpose to better show You why the Man became the way He did,then picks up as it leads to its Fatal Ending. Slow/Brilliant/Sweeping