'Malcolm X' at 30: Spike Lee reflects on winning to make his masterpiece

Writer, producer and director Spike Lee entered the 1990s with a bang. Following the critical and commercial triumph of his 1989 masterpiece 'Do the Right Thing', he started the decade with the exquisite jazz film 'Mo' Better Blues' (1990) and kept up the pace with the provocative, furious and hilarious "Jungle Fever." These three films had all been made for Universal on modest budgets and were all successes relative to those budgets, but for his next film, Lee was ready to go to the mattresses. He took a break from Universal to make a movie at Warner Bros., the studio that owned the rights to a project Lee had dreamed of directing since he was a film student: "The Autobiography of Malcolm X." 'Alex Haley.

Lee may not have been ready to take on a film of this scale and ambition when he was at NYU, but by the fall of 1991 he was more than ready - he was determined. When he read that Norman Jewison — a director he admired, but who Lee said might miss some of the nuances of Malcolm's journey — was attached to directing the film, Lee spoke out against the idea in the hurry. His audacity drew some criticism, but it also allowed the director to meet Jewison and producer Marvin Worth, and together they all agreed that Lee was the right filmmaker for the job.

The result was one of the great American movies not just of the decade but of the century, as Spike Lee poured everything he had learned about film, politics, behavior and culture into a Molotov cocktail of 201 minutes of epic cinema. An eloquent and intimate character study as well as a gripping portrait of America in the second half of the 20th century, it was confirmation of Lee's genius but his most self-effacing work to date in its humility before its subject.

Part of the fire and fury of the film undoubtedly comes from the circumstances in which it was shot. Lee had a much less harmonious relationship with the powers that be at Warner Bros. than he had at Universal, and there were many fights throughout the film that culminated in a period where the bond company shut down the film and took it. out of Lee's hands. The director, however, remained true to his ideas, channeling the same fiery determination that defined his subject.

"Malcolm X"

Warner Bros.

On the eve of the film's 30th anniversary, Spike Lee spoke with IndieWire about what it took to realize his vision.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

IndieWire: I recently re-read your book on the making of "Malcolm X", and it seems that you struggled with resistance and obstacles every step of the way, from the studio to various bands and other people who had their clean, very different ideas of what a Malcolm X movie should be. How d...