Malcolm X: Make It Plain
Malcolm X: Make It Plain (1994) A balanced American Experience documentary drawing heavily on a diversity of interviews with friends and foes. One gets, from the documentary, a credible appreciation of Malcolm X the man and the frenetic leader. What is lacking is an understanding of whether Islam was a spiritual core for Malcolm, or simply a tactical tool which he adapted to his messianic message. Moreover, the lasting impact of Malcolmism is not examined. Watch The Teaching Company’s Professor Dalton, in Freedom: The Philosophy of Revolution(1994), for a somewhat different perception of his post-Mecca pilgrimage thinking. Denzel Washington, in Malcolm X(1992), is a ‘must see,’ though the history is somewhat distorted.
