If a feel-good docudrama about the life of a decidedly not PC civil-rights leader is what audiences were hoping for when seeing Malcolm X for the very first time, director/co-writer Spike Lee immediately made it clear that this was not the film for them. The first thing we see onscreen as the film begins is the American flag slowly becoming engulfed in flames and forming the letter X, which is intercut with the familiar footage of Rodney King being viciously beaten by officers of the L.A.P.D in May of 1991. And as we’re looking at these images,we hear Denzel Washington as Malcolm X giving a speech as he charges the white man for his numerous crimes and offenses against Black people over the past 400 years.
Read more at UpRoxx: Spike Lee’s ‘Malcolm X’ Didn’t Care About The White Gaze
