Spike Lee talks about ‘Malcolm X’ at the Red Sea Film Festival
Spike Lee has directed several masterpieces over the course of his career, but his 1992 biopic of revolutionary activist Malcolm X will always be his magnum opus. Starring Denzel Washington, who gave the best performance of his career as the titular leader, Malcolm X is undoubtedly among the greatest biographical films ever made.
Although some of the most important scenes of Malcolm X were shot in Mecca, the film was never screened in Saudi Arabia due to the 35-year ban on cinemas. At this year’s edition of the Red Sea Film Festival, Lee spoke about the making of Malcolm X at the first public screening of the film in the country.
Lee said (via Variety): “We made the first film that was ever allowed to bring a camera into the holy city of Mecca during Hajj. Of course, I hired a full Muslim camera crew. The highest Islamic court didn’t agree to this because of me but because they realised how important Malcolm X was for Islam. We were blessed. Yesterday we came full circle.”
The director added: “Ernest Dickerson was my classmate at NYU, along with Ang Lee. We were all in the same class. Ernest shot all my films up until our final collaboration on Malcolm X. We wanted it to be an epic film, like David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago or Lawrence of Arabia. We knew by hook or crook that we had to shoot Malcolm X’s hajj, where he broke into true Islam. It added so much spirituality to the film.”
While talking about the powerful image of the pilgrims in Mecca, Lee declared: “There’s no other way we could have shot those scenes in Mecca. You cannot fake those huge crowds. No budget could achieve that. It’s amazing. It gave the film that special feel we needed.”
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