User Reviews

I'm sorry, but I guess you had to see it in 1981.

Part of the distaste here is that it doesn't really compare to Spike Lee's last good film.

And the other part is Morgan Freeman. It's really hard to see him as Malcolm X. That's not to say that he isn't a good actor, and it is not to say that Washington is a better actor.

Push comes to shove anyone will take Freeman over Washington for most roles...and Freeman does his best, but he just doesn't have it in his personality to capture Malcolm X. He's lacking the ominous intensity he's, well...

...it's honestly just really hard to see Freeman as anyone that's ever been militant.

It's not unlike his role in Glory, or Robin hood, you can see him as the teacher, the father figure of a group of soldiers...but the moment he picks up a rifle (or in Robin Hood a sword) and threatens to harm someone else...you lose that willing suspension of disbelief.

It may be easy to see him in the role of a Civil Rights leader...but not one as Militant as Malcolm X.

It may just be me, but I like Freeman because I get wise and peaceful father-figure vibe off him, or even just the teacher vibe...and that's only a small part of Malcolm X.

It just didn't sit right. The casting ruined the film for me. But like I said, it could be that I watched it in 2017, after the Spike Lee adaptation of his life, and not in 1981 before Freeman established himself as the teacher-father figure for the audience.

Morgan Freeman portraying Malcolm X should have been a sure thing, but his very good performance is swallowed up in this awkwardly staged experimental film. On the surface, and the myriad DVD covers (this film is in the public domain and subject to a ton of releases), this hour long drama chronicles the last day in the life of Malcolm X before he was gunned down in New York City during a speech in February of 1965. However, writer/director Woodie King, Jr. Throws in many anachronisms, turning this into a strange drama. Freeman wanders around 1965 Harlem, but encounters hippies, and discusses the deaths of the both assassinated Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, Jr. The automobiles in the film are obviously contemporary to when this was made. Malcolm X goes about his mundane errands, and the camera follows, making this hour-long film seem longer.

Freeman looks wrong in the role, he looks more like Cornel West than anyone, but he brings a nice gravity to the film. We don't get to hear his distinctive voice until almost a quarter of the way into the story, but Ossie Davis and Amiri Baraka are present to talk about the day Malcolm X was shot, and its effect on the Black community. Technically, the editing is sloppy, the sets are cheap, and characters are introduced without any backing information (the assassination conspirators are given almost as much screen time as Freeman). Yolanda King, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., plays Betty Shabazz pretty well. It's unsettling to have scenes concerning a firebombing of the couple's home, considering the way Betty Shabazz died decades later. As a stand-alone film, "Death of a Prophet" is an interesting failure.

Well-intentioned, very deliberate docudrama (don't be scared by introductory remarks from real people, this is not another documentary, you just have to wait a little bit for the drama) recounting the hours and minutes from Malcom X arrival in New York till his assassination at the Audobon Ballroom.. A pall of foreboding hangs over the entire proceedings, as it did in real life. Malcom knew his life was threatened, just not exactly by who, and the muted action cuts back and forth between X worrying and his killers plotting as time ticks to the final conflagration

Everything is fairly and appropriately underplayed, maintaining the docu and resisting overplayed drama, which otherwise so often happens when directors can't resist the temptation to over-lionize the latter day legend more so than he was at the time of the actual events.

Not surprisingly Morgan Freeman as X is definitely on board with this. I don't think he's ever chewed a piece of scenery in his entire career. And all the lesser players follow suit.

If you're looking for big studio fireworks see Spike Lee's , which i HIGHLY recommend, but this one's for appreciation of the real, excruciating anticipation of facing the final abyss.

This film is NOT about the last 24 hours of Malcolm X's life. It is a 'what if' fantasy that shows Malcolm walking around New York in the years following his death, relating to the black movements in America and abroad. One can tell this isn't about the actual last 24 hours of his life from countless details, such as hippies (that movement wouldn't start for well over a year after Malcolm's death) a bookseller (in a dashiki!) talking about the death of the Kennedy children and Martin, footage of black people in afros on a TV discussion program (with no white host - remember, Malcolm died in February of 1965!), black FBI agents... the list goes on and on. The film takes liberties with history to make points about the impact Malcolm had, but such a form of storytelling can be dangerous, since obviously the one other reviewer here thought this film was an actual documentation of the last day of Malcolm's life. Who knows how many others think the same thing? I don't mind filmmakers taking such liberties, after all, one has a right to speak metaphorically about the 'prophet' Malcolm. But it's done in such a slipshod way. Morgan Freeman is one of my favorite actors but he portrays Malcolm as if he was made of stone: a dangerous thing when portraying a martyr. It's vital that people know that Malcolm was a flesh and blood human being. Everyone in this film though, is acting as if they were under extreme hypnosis. The whole film is lethargic, and will surely be confusing to those who don't know very much about the civil rights movement, or the independence movements throughout Africa. I guess for 1981, this film was better than nothing since Malcolm still hadn't been acknowledged by the film world (other than a documentary in 1972). But as long as one is going to watch a docudrama on Malcolm, skip this junk and watch Spike Lee's magnificent "Malcolm X". You'll get a much more focused, passionate, and correctly detailed account of the man and what it was that he stood for.

The DVD jacket says "Highlighted by newsreel footage and insightful interviews, Death of a Prophet is the tragic, truthful and awe-inspiring story of the last 24hours of Malcolm X." Now, wouldn't a reasonable person conclude this is a historically accurate account based on that description? I did, yet the cars are frequently from the 70's, "Malcolm" discuss the death of Dr. King with an elderly man, even though he died before Dr. King! I guess he really was a prophet! There are more examples, but you get the point.

This is really sloppy movie making. I'm surprised Morgan Freeman would associate himself with such a jumbled-up mess.

Too bad there's not a zero star option . . . This movie deserves it.

Aside from. Terrible acting & cheezy production - even for '81 - the only other comment I will add is . . .

No wonder so many young people have skewed ideas about history . . . And the kids who viewed this in the 80s are now in their 40s, 50s, 60s - I wonder how many still have skewed narratives rattling around in their ideologies . . .

Simply admire Morgan Freeman( Malcolm X), as a great actor with outstanding talents and a person who puts his very heart and soul into any role he tries to portray. In this film, Morgan stars as a dynamic African-American activist who fought for racial equality during the rough and tough 1960s. Unfortunately, this film only portrays the final twenty-four hours of the civil rights leader's life. Morgan Freeman made you feel the great power that this crusader had within his very soul and how he truly loved his calling to help the poverty stricken people and to bring his race into the light of the entire world. If you like Morgan Freeman and a cast of great actors, please don't miss this film.

This movie tells of the last 24 hrs of X's life.. Morgan Freeman does this film justice.. A must see for any X fans.. Has real life X's daughter in it also.