Malcolm X. Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali). Sam Cooke. Jim Brown. Four characters each with different and nuanced views of America’s blatant White supremacy and how they should respond to it. The men are all in Miami for Clay’s championship fight against Sonny Liston. But as we learn later in the movie, the real fight has yet to begin. Their conversations after the fight throughout the night are the subject of the Regina King’s impressive movie “One Night in Miami.” Whether we’re talking about the strong script, cinematography, or the performances, there’s a lot to celebrate within this movie that I will leave for more talented writers. But I want to focus on the nuanced perspectives on life and struggle from four Black characters that is often only reserved for White characters (and by extension White people).
In my experience, Black characters don’t often receive the screen time and lines necessary to flesh out the nuance of their character’s unique motivations. This screen and script real estate often only go to White characters. Or the character is Black in skin only but not in identity. (For a good example of this, watch Iris West in the CW hit show “The Flash.”) I find this lack of nuance for Black characters to be especially present when a story has multiple Black characters. That is, unless the director and screenwriter both have a strong understanding of the multitude and nuances of Black paradigms. In this case, director Regina King and screenwriter Kemp Powers proved they are up to the task, an accomplishment even more impressive in light of their strong historical depictions of historical character dialogue.
As I watched the movie, their accuracy made me feel like a fly on the wall as Malcolm, Sam, Cassius, and Jim discussed issues that are heartbreakingly relevant today. Each of their words seemed carefully brushed like a stroke on a canvas. I say this particularly as one who went into the movie openly partial to the words and legacy of Malcolm X above all the men captured in the story. But even hours after the movie ended, I continued to feel deep surprise and appreciation at the care and fairness given to each character’s perspective. I couldn’t think of many other movies that did the same for several Black characters on screen at once. Days later as I write this hyper-focused “review,” I still can’t think of many others.
For me, the beauty of “One Night in Miami” emanates from the cast and crew allowing each of these men to communicate a distinct perspective in light of their shared racial oppression. Although there’s a little bit of overlap in their perspectives, each man has a specific viewpoint that eventually collided that of another character. But the collisions didn’t lead to destruction. Instead, the collisions sharpened each character “as iron sharpens iron.” By extension, I think their conversations can sharpen us as well.
As I said on Twitter, I believe “One Night in Miami” is a must watch. It’s worth one month of Prime. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.