Bringing Malcolm to the Masses: The Long Journey from Page to Screen

摘要

The effort to adapt The Autobiography of Malcolm X into a feature film lasted a quarter of a century and serves as a window through which Hollywood's relationship with Black spectators, artists, and subject matter can be examined. Preceding the controversy surrounding the production of Spike Lee's biopic Malcolm X (1992), this essay looks at the numerous failed attempts at adapting the Malcolm/Haley text and places each within the context of the changing film industry and African American popular culture. Charting the rise and fall of the blaxploitation cycle and the resulting erasure of African Americans from the cinematic frame in the 1980s, the failure to bring Malcolm X to the big screen can be rooted in the rationale of Hollywood production strategies and how they relate to African Americans as both subject and audience. The eventual realization of the project in 1992 is evidence of the cultural capital of Spike Lee individually and the hip hop generation as a whole, with Hollywood reconsidering the profitability of African Americans as both cultural producers and consumers.