"The Autobiography of Malcolm X" and "Malcolm X" the film

Response: Identify how Spike Lee connects the book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, to the film "Malcolm X." In particular, explain how he uses voiceovers, flashbacks and incorporates historic events.

According to my own thoughts and views, Spike Lee’s film "Malcolm X" is not exactly the same, or even similar to that of the book, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”. However, it is a motivating, insensitive, and well thought-out film that I felt gets rid of such categorization with some respect. To continue, throughout both the film “Malcolm X” and the book “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”, Spike Lee uses narrations, both flashbacks and foreshadowing, as well as also incorporates historic events.

To begin, I’m going to start out by showing the flashbacks and foreshadowing. In the film “Malcolm X”, as it proceeds forward from the time around the 40's, it goes through a great amount of flashbacks to Malcolm's childhood days. His days back in Nebraska and Michigan. However, in the film these scenes are so short and fragmented that they almost don’t mean anything. After reading the autobiography, however, they began to make more sense. In the book “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” there are also similar flashbacks that replay memories for this specific time in Malcolm X’s life.

In the book, Malcolm X also uses foreshadowing to draw attention to how far his life has taken him as well as to alarm us readers for disappointment and disturbance. In a early part in the book for example he speaks of his achievements and also of his less venerable points in life.

As for historic events, Spike Lee emphasizes on the struggle for Civil Rights in the 1950s and 1960s. This is emphasized to show the movement of the African Americans in the time of racial discrimination. I fill this is an expected event to be included in the film due to the great amount of discrimination that was taking place during the time of Malcolm X.