My Favorite Scene: Malcolm X

Spike Lee’s Malcolm X is a three hour and 20 minute epic that covers the four decade life of one of America’s most controversial and misunderstood men. It is a masterpiece of film that contains boundless moments worthy of extended discussion. It also, for the record, contains one of the single greatest performances in movie history. It’s the type of role that doesn’t level the biopic playing field, so much as define it.

Denzel Washington isn’t impersonating Malcolm X here, he is Malcolm X. Spike Lee continually admits that much of the best acting in the film was improvised by Washington. The man was so familiar with X’s way of speaking – his cadence and charm and reserved rage – that he would often “ad lib” speeches that weren’t scripted. I put ad lib in quotes because even though Lee didn’t script the words, Washington knew the actual man had said them. It’s a performance of such charisma and vulnerability, wrapped in a film that is that and more, that I often find myself amused by the fact that the film’s best moment is capped with the utterance of a single word.

Midway through the film, at the height of his furor as motivated by The Nation of Islam and its leader, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X is ascending the few steps on the Harvard campus when he is approached by a young, white, genuinely good natured female. A little blonde coed, if you will.

The coed is simply seeking Malcolm’s advice. She wants to know what a “good white person” such as herself, who believes in much of what X preaches, can do to further X’s cause.

Now, there are a few things to make note of here. First is the coed’s brief performance, played perfectly by Fia Porter (who was never before or again in anything of note) in which she (as the character) not only has to approach and block arguably the most intimating man in America at the moment, but also (as the actress) act equal parts sincere and nervous. Her brief work is exceptional, to say the least.

Next is the man himself. Watch Washington’s face closely in this scene, the way he scoffs and looks away at the line, “I’m a good person, despite what my ancestors did,” and the way he begins politely nodding before the coed has finished talking. He knows exactly what he’s going to say, he’s simply waiting for her to stop speaking so he can deliver his verbal punch and be on his way. Which he does, via a deep, baritoned, “Nothing.”

Lastly, in a film filled with far more extravagant sequences, it is especially important to note this scene’s length. Clocking in at just above 30 seconds, it is incredible what Lee and Washington were able to achieve in half a minute. With a scoff, a few dismissive nods, and one single word, Lee flawlessly evoked who Malcolm X was at that particular time in his life.

In his book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley, on which Lee’s film is based, X talks at length about this moment. About how a “little blonde coed” tracked him down outside of a restaurant in Harlem, asked him what she, a white well-to-do Southern Belle, could do to help him. His answer was the same as it is in the film, and she burst into tears before fleeing in a taxi.

I’m sure Lee had his reasons for depicting the moment slightly different than it actually occurred, but no matter the justification, it remains as subtly devastating and gut wrenching a moment as you’re likely to find in a contemporary American film.

In the book, and its subsequent epilogue penned by Haley, X makes several mentions to this event, and how it was one of his life’s greatest regrets. If he could’ve gone back, I wonder if he would’ve accepted that little blonde coed’s help. Surely she could’ve done more than nothing.

The scene in question can be viewed here

Previous installments of My Favorite Scene include:

8 Mile
Babel
Brokeback Mountain
Crash
Fargo
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
GoodFellas
He Got Game
House of Games
Hustle & Flow
Inception
Insomnia
Leaving Las Vegas
Philadelphia
Platoon
Raging Bull
Redbelt
The Rules of Attraction
Se7en
The Silence of Taratino
Sleepers
The Films of Tony Scott

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