Run time and the material Malcolm X included aside, it marks one of the strongest and most consistent performances Denzel Washington’s ever turned in. There’s not a moment during the entire film, regardless of what Malcolm he’s inhabiting that viewers are conscious of Washington the actor. It’s honestly rather amazing.

The range of tone that the character affects – in early childhood, when Washington is obviously not the actor – while being told he’s smart, but black, so law isn’t an endeavor he should want to pursue, to the time spent working in a kitchen on a train, there’s a wide emotive gap to traverse. And the few actors who ape the character do it perfectly.

The real Malcolm did have to watch his childhood home burn down, his father murdered and then sent off to various foster homes. So when viewers are greeted by the image of Washington in a loud red suit, there shouldn’t be too much surprise regarding his expenditure of money on something that could be figured as frivolous.

In a scene just following our introduction to the grown up Malcolm, he smashes a bottle over the head of a man who’s just invoked the name of his mother. Based upon that display, Malcolm finds himself in the employ of a Harlem criminal who winds up teaching him about the number’s racket – which leads to him landing in jail in a round about way.

While it’s understood that heading into prison, one’s set to encounter a Muslim contingent. The religion functions as a way for black men to find strength in themselves as well as in community and hopefully make incarceration at least tolerable. Here, Lee almost makes jail seem like a positive place showing viewers libraries, free time to read and philosophical discussions. Absent is the violence.

That only leads to the question of responsibility for a film like this. Teaching viewers about one of the most important black leaders in the country’s history shouldn’t take a back seat to portraying reality. And with that fifteen minute coda tacked on with Ossie Davis figuring Malcolm X for something almost beyond human, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of room to discuss the man’s dismissal of segregation from white society. Granted Malcolm X wasn’t allowed to fully realize his religious and political views. But Lee was able to leave out a good deal of the unity that might have resulted if Malcolm hadn’t been taken from his constituents so early.