Huyen Le
Prof.Tracy Virgil
English 163-10
Nov.14, 2014
Contrast Malcolm X’s Autobiography and Malcolm X’s movie
Movies and books are different kinds of storytelling that depend on the writers and the audiences. In my view, books show more details as much as they can to draw the picture for readers. Besides that, movies have limited time, so directors have to choose details to show off and catch the notice of viewers. However, I do not think a certain one are better than another because the value of the products depends on the point of view. These subjects have been discussed and figured out in long time why we should or should not change the content of the original version. In commercial, with long stories were written in the books, the directors have to choose what details are famous in the market or what details interest the viewer, and they will use all spectacles to attract customers. Like Malcolm X’s Autobiography, a movie version conducted by Spike Lee has details that are different from the trustful and logical way in the novel version to impress and seduce the audience watching the movie in a leisured way. The first difference I noticed in the Malcolm X movie is the chronology that was rearranged. In the novel, the author told Malcolm’s life step by step from the day he was born. In this way, I could follow what happened with Malcolm as segments of time. It is easy to understand how Malcolm lived, and we could know all his relationships. In this way, readers could connect the details to figure out the relationships among the events and feel Malcolm’s thought through his actions. However, when there are so many details, the readers have to remember all of them and somehow we do not know what details will connect to the later time or what details are the key events could change Malcolm life. On the contrary, the movie version jumped into the time Malcolm started go crazy with “conk” style and stuck in “hustlers”. Sometimes, the director recalled the memories in childhood time to explain what caused to Malcolm’s action at that moment. With this pattern, the viewers could feel messy if they have not read the autobiography. In other words, the producer has connected the past and the present in Malcolm’s life in easy way to help the viewer understand Malcolm’s situations in director’s opinion. Moreover, we watch the movie with the entertainment and do not want that too many details make our mind goes crazy in relax time. Eventually, in both pattern of time, we can find out the pros and cons of each. Another, the most important point in the novel version is the moment that Malcolm was arrested was changed in the movie version. In Malcolm X Autobiography, the author had shown many efforts that pushed Malcolm into the impasse and how his instinct wake up to save him. Such as, Malcolm was addicted in drug, was chased by four enemies, and especially lived without the purpose. Being kicked out of many jobs, Malcolm had to do whatever to be alive. Those convinced me to empathize why Malcolm had to act in crazy ways. The battle in Malcolm’s mind showed how important the scene was to change the life of Malcolm. In contrast, the movie showed the normal detail with no emotion in the moment that Malcolm’s life changed to completely different page. That did not show the meaning when Malcolm gave up a crazy life to begin a new life. However, the viewers feel relax and surprise with the funny action that Shorty and Malcolm characters acted in the movie. In this moment, the novel has proved the power of analyzing