X doesn't always mark the spot

I have to admit, I'm not a huge Spike Lee aficianado, and have only seen a handfull of his films. In that context, Malcolm X is second only to Do the Right Thing in the Lee cannon. I would describe Spike Lee as the black man's Oliver Stone. He's generally not afraid to be big, bold, and in your face about the issues that matter to him, and the issues that matter to him are those of race relations. I have to admit, it's not an effective dialogue when the protagonist is saying for the middle half of the film, that the bane of the human race are the white devils. Now, I can't just end it here, because love him or hate him, no other filmmaker confronts racial issues with the maturity and passion of Spike Lee (not necessarily the impartiality, however). In the beginning, Malcolm was just a 2-bit street hood that was stealing, doing drugs, sleeping with white women, and straightening his hair in order to partially hide his blackness. Then one day, he lands in jail with a 10 year sentence. There, he meets a man who teaches him that everything he learned about race up to now was wrong. God is not white, Jesus was not white, white does not equal pure and holy, and black does not equal stained and evil. There's a bit more to it than that, but suffice it to say that he is converted to Islam and earns his masters degree while in prison. When he gets out, he quickly rises through the ranks of the Islamic institution and become second only to the honorable Elijah Mohammed, a man who claims to be the final prophet of Allah. He is intelligent, sincere, honest, and preaches complete separation of the races. One day he takes a journey to Mecca (this is the only non-documentary that has been allowed to film in Mecca) where he discovers Muslims of all races living in harmony with each other. When he returns, he begins to preach the possibilities of racial integration, though before they are integrated, the black community must come to terms with itself and respect itself. These new teachings, among other things, make Malcolm some enemies within the very Islamic group that he once preached from. Denzel Washington is a fine actor, and for the second half, when Malcolm is cleaned up and educated, he is truly within his depth (he seems a little bit out of place for the first half as the street hood). It's interesting to note that the budget on this film was $37 million and the film is 3hrs. 20min. long. That's a pretty impressive feat of economic and efficient filmmaking. As for the films ideas, I am of the opinion that (for the most part) this generation is not particularly guilty of racial offenses. Our fathers might have been and their fathers may have been the victims, but don't ask me to pay for the slaves of my ancestors. Malcolm even preaches that blacks cannot be guilty of racism because 400 years of oppression by the white man justifies anything a black man may do. Wrong! We are each responsible for our own actions, and in a capitalist democracy, our inactions as well. Not having a job is not the fault of the white man, and I had nothing to do with slavery. As the film progresses, however, and particularly after Mecca, Malcolm's ideas begin to change and become more reasonable. It's too bad that he was assassinated when he was. I admit, walking into this film I knew little of the man, and what I did know, did not endear me to him. Walking away from the film, I feel I understand the man, and while I may never agree with all of his ideas, I can respect him.