This is a good movie. It is set in early 1964 in Florida, on the night 22-year-old Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston and becomes the World Heavyweight Boxing. He's also started calling himself "Cassius X," and invited Malcolm X to the match.
Jim Forman (Aldis Hodge,) the standout rusher for the Cleveland Browns, also attends and, like the others, is considering a different career as a film actor. The fourth man, soul singer Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom) seems to be regarded as a bit of a lightweight by Malcolm X, who, given what we know about the man himself, is perhaps the most serious and ardent person in any gathering.
The gathering is at a small motel, and the four friends talk of their lives and their moment.
They characters talk like the old friends they are, over bowls of vanilla ice cream. Of the group, Malcolm X is the most serious and suspects that Sam Cooke is less so.
The next morning, Cassius Clay announces his new name -- Muhammed Ali -- and that he has joined the Nation of Islam. Meanwhile Malcolm X
The movie is well written, drawn from a play of the same name. Its writer, Kemp Powers, also co-wrote and co-directed "Soul," a film I enjoyed several weeks ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment