Friday, January 29, 2021

Review of 'One Night in Miami'


Really powerful film about a the night in 1964 when the then Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston, and the time spent together by Clay, Malcolm X, Sam Cook and Jim Brown (an NFL footballer that I hadn't heard of). It's based on a play, and it shows - sometimes it feels very stagey rather than cinematic - but it's still very good. All of the characters get their turn to be thoughtful, intense, and smart. It's more about Black responses to racism than the racism itself, though that's featured too.

One small criticism...it isn't clear from the end titles that Malcolm X was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam, rather than by white racists.

Watched on Amazon Prime - it's an Amazon original, though they bought the rights rather than made it.

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