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Director Spike Lee's Malcolm X has inspired more passionate interest in history than any other film in recent memory. And no movie premiere has ever been accompanied by such a flood of books, videos, cassettes, and CDs — some new, some dusted off and reissued. Here's a brief, critical guide to some of the treatments of the black leader and his message.
In Print
MALCOLM X SPEAKS Edited by George Breitman
Of
all the anthologies of Malcolm's speeches, this is the most
representative. It includes the full text of his greatest speech,
''The Ballot or the Bullet.'' The only thing the book lacks is
Malcolm's mesmerizing speaking voice. A
MALCOLM: THE LIFE OF A MAN WHO CHANGED BLACK AMERICA By Bruce
Perry
Through several hundred interviews, Perry presents a Malcolm who was
far more complex and contradictory than the legend. He also
uncovers details omitted or smoothed over in the autobiography. (One
of the milder jolts: Malcolm's father may not have been murdered by
white supremacists, as Malcolm contended.) The reader is convinced by
Perry's research — and even more so of Malcolm's stature. A
BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY: THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF THE MAKING
OF MALCOLM X By Spike Lee with Ralph Wiley
Includes the screenplay of the current movie. Lee can be insufferably
self-aggrandizing. But when you least expect it, he can also throw
off blinding insight. A-
MALCOLM X: IN OUR OWN IMAGE Edited by Joe Wood
An anthology important not just for its topicality
but for its look at ferment among late-20th-century black
intellectuals. A
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X As Told to Alex Haley
Its veracity on isolated facts has been called
into question, but its place in world literature has never seemed
more assured. Whether the book is completely accurate isn't the
point. Overall, it tells the truth of African-American life with such
transfiguring power that, even as you read these words, it is
changing someone's life. A+
BLACK BEAT SUPERSTAR SPECIAL #8: A TRIBUTE TO MALCOLM X
Malcolm in a teen fanzine,
with pull-out poster, fact sheets, and lots of exclamation marks!!! C
On Video
MALCOLM X: EL HAJJ MALIK EL SHABAZZ
One in a
made-for-video Black Heritage series, this documentary suffers from
extremely poor production values. C
DEATH OF A PROPHET: THE LAST DAYS OF MALCOLM X
This 1982 blend of newsreels, interviews, and drama (Morgan
Freeman is Malcolm) is thoughtful, though a bit awestruck. B-
MALCOLM X
This Oscar-nominated,
dynamic 1972 documentary may be a better account of Malcolm than
Lee's movie. A
On Audio
MALCOLM X SPEAKS OUT
To hear him
is to know him: He's at his most commanding in these excerpts from 11
speeches. A
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X As Told to Alex Haley
Joe Morton reads Malcolm's words
and Roscoe Lee Brown provides narration; told with passion and a
sense of urgency. A
