Episode 61: Malcolm X with Guest Star, Filmmaker Brandon Wilson

This week, we welcome our special guest star, the very, very smart and insightful filmmaker, critic, and educator Brandon Wilson, to celebrate the 4th by dropping Malcolm X on Plymouth Rock. 

Given [gestures around at everything], we wanted to celebrate the decaying, never-actually-real American Dream with Spike Lee’s revolutionary, game-changing magnum opus Malcolm X, which is, of course, about the revolutionary leader Malcolm X (and a lot of other things). 

The original recording was almost 5 hours long, so we had to cut a lot of amazing convo since we’re two broads and not an idiotic white man who works overtime to humanize monsters and has the capability to sway elections and get people to disbelieve common sense science. 

However, we cover plenty of other things as we take the plunge into this very long but deeply exhilarating epic, including the genius of Spike Lee, the astonishing snubs this film received from the Academy (but hey, Howard’s End and Enchanted April, right? And Scent of a Woman?), having the Jersey shore stand in for Mecca, how the hell this film got made, and so much more. 

Malcolm X stars Denzel Washington as Malcolm X, Angela Bassett as Betty Shabazz, Spike lee as Shorty, Kate Vernon as Sophia, Delroy Lindo as West Indian Archie, Theresa Randle as Laura, Al Freeman Jr. as Elijah Muhammed, Albert Hall as Baines, and many, many more.

Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.

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