Maine's Capital Area

 
"The much-hyped “Malcolm X” happens to be a spiritually enriching testament to the human capacity for change — and surely Spike Lee’s most universally appealing film. An engrossing mosaic of history, myth and sheer conjecture, this ambitious epic manages to sustain itself for 3 hours 21 minutes, and also overcomes an early frivolity of tone and Lee’s intrusiveness to achieve a stature befitting its subject. Lee, whose enormous affection for his hero suffuses his work, nevertheless resists the temptation to sanitize Malcolm as Richard Attenborough did Gandhi. The civil rights leader, as eloquently portrayed by Denzel Washington, emerges as an immensely likable human being — a onetime black separatist who overcame his own prejudices. Still, this biopic will ruffle a few white feathers – and probably a few black ones too; that’s a given — but “Malcolm X” addresses itself to all Americans, reminding us none too gently with its opening footage of the Rodney King beating that the work is never done”—Rita Kempley, Washington Post. NY Film Critics Best Actor Award to Washington, as well as Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. R. 201 Min. 1992.

To purchase tickets, please contact the Maine Film Center.