>To Spike Lee's credit I think that he was following an
>existing script and esp. Haley's autobiography/story.
>
It was in MX's autobiography (as told to Alex Haley) that I learned about the bigger forces that were moving on Malcolm. I can't give Spike a pass for leaving this out, I'm sorry. Too many minds that are all too often influenced by movies and believe in movies and will NEVER read the book or do any independent research on their own, were/are at stake. And he didn't give the people The Truth on this one; instead he misled.



>Also see #44.
>
>>Malcolm was nearly poisoned to death while he was in Egypt
>and
>>he was also denied entry into the French Embassy. Needless
>to
>>say, these incidents were not the works of the NOI.
>
>Somewhere above I mentioned COINTELPRO and this includes other
>imperialist countries.

Yes, YOU mentioned. But Spike didn't deal with this element of MX and his assassination properly. I can't give Spike credit for what you did/mentioned.

>
>>Why leave those 2 facts out, but dedicate 15 - 20 minutes of
>>film time to jitterbug dancing?
>
>It's Hollywood. The studio wanted to shut the production down
>from the very beginning.
>
>>Where's your focus and your
>>priorities? Which is more important and which would give
>the
>>viewer a greater understanding on the importance of MX and
>the
>>impact that he truly had/was having/ and would have had on
>the
>>world.
>
>IMO there's no way Lee would have been able to bring such a
>film to mainstream audiences.

Why not? Oliver Stone was able to do some serious, real, and truthful finger pointing in his film on JFK?

I think it fair to say that the
>film really only covered his early years, his transition and
>transformation from NOI to true Islam, and the strain he was
>under up until his death. I agree that Lee only danced around
>the edges of what Shabazz could have become but it was a
>strategy that got the movie made and distributed
>commercially.

For that reason, I was and still am apprehensive about this film's release. Malcolm was (and to the extent that he hasn't been completely co-opted) a revolutionary ICON to the nth degree and that is nothing to play with. He meant something to alot of people and the commericializaiton of his life and legacy through this film has taken a lot from that.


>

>BTW - I wasn't just sobbing because he was going to be killed.
> I was thinking about what we really lost when he was killed.

True enough, the film was good for generating emotions.