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One Day When I Was Lost
A rare, lucidly composed screenplay from one of America’s greatest writers, based on the bestselling classic The Autobiography of Malcolm X. • "Sharp.... Precise.... There is no questioning the depth and sincerity of Baldwin's admiration for Malcolm X." — The Times Literary Supplement
Son of a Baptist minister; New York City hustler; honor student; convicted criminal; powerful minister in the Nation of Islam; father and Malcolm X transformed himself, time and again, in order to become one of the most feared, loved, and undeniably charismatic leaders of twentieth-century America. No one better represents the tumultuous times of his generation, and there is no one better to capture him and his milieu than James Baldwin. With spare, elegant, yet forceful dialogue and fresh, precise camera directions, Baldwin breathes cinematic life into this controversial and important figure, offering a new look at a man who changed himself in order to change the country.
Son of a Baptist minister; New York City hustler; honor student; convicted criminal; powerful minister in the Nation of Islam; father and Malcolm X transformed himself, time and again, in order to become one of the most feared, loved, and undeniably charismatic leaders of twentieth-century America. No one better represents the tumultuous times of his generation, and there is no one better to capture him and his milieu than James Baldwin. With spare, elegant, yet forceful dialogue and fresh, precise camera directions, Baldwin breathes cinematic life into this controversial and important figure, offering a new look at a man who changed himself in order to change the country.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
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About the author
James Baldwin
331 books16.2k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Works of American writer James Arthur Baldwin, outspoken critic of racism, include Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), a novel, and Notes of a Native Son (1955), a collection of essays.
James Arthur Baldwin authored plays and poems in society.
He came as the eldest of nine children; his stepfather served as a minister. At 14 years of age in 1938, Baldwin preached at the small fireside Pentecostal church in Harlem. From religion in the early 1940s, he transferred his faith to literature with the still evident impassioned cadences of black churches. From 1948, Baldwin made his home primarily in the south of France but often returned to the United States of America to lecture or to teach.
In his Giovanni's Room, a white American expatriate must come to terms with his homosexuality. In 1957, he began spending half of each year in city of New York.
James Baldwin offered a vital literary voice during the era of civil rights activism in the 1950s and 1960s.
He first partially autobiographically accounted his youth. His influential Nobody Knows My Name and The Fire Next Time informed a large white audience. Another Country talks about gay sexual tensions among intellectuals of New York. Segments of the black nationalist community savaged his gay themes. Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panthers stated the Baldwin displayed an "agonizing, total hatred of blacks." People produced Blues for Mister Charlie , play of Baldwin, in 1964. Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, defended Baldwin.
Going to Meet the Man and Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone provided powerful descriptions. He as an openly gay man increasingly in condemned discrimination against lesbian persons.
From stomach cancer, Baldwin died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. People buried his body at the Ferncliff cemetery in Hartsdale near city of New York.
Works of American writer James Arthur Baldwin, outspoken critic of racism, include Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), a novel, and Notes of a Native Son (1955), a collection of essays.
James Arthur Baldwin authored plays and poems in society.
He came as the eldest of nine children; his stepfather served as a minister. At 14 years of age in 1938, Baldwin preached at the small fireside Pentecostal church in Harlem. From religion in the early 1940s, he transferred his faith to literature with the still evident impassioned cadences of black churches. From 1948, Baldwin made his home primarily in the south of France but often returned to the United States of America to lecture or to teach.
In his Giovanni's Room, a white American expatriate must come to terms with his homosexuality. In 1957, he began spending half of each year in city of New York.
James Baldwin offered a vital literary voice during the era of civil rights activism in the 1950s and 1960s.
He first partially autobiographically accounted his youth. His influential Nobody Knows My Name and The Fire Next Time informed a large white audience. Another Country talks about gay sexual tensions among intellectuals of New York. Segments of the black nationalist community savaged his gay themes. Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panthers stated the Baldwin displayed an "agonizing, total hatred of blacks." People produced Blues for Mister Charlie , play of Baldwin, in 1964. Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, defended Baldwin.
Going to Meet the Man and Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone provided powerful descriptions. He as an openly gay man increasingly in condemned discrimination against lesbian persons.
From stomach cancer, Baldwin died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. People buried his body at the Ferncliff cemetery in Hartsdale near city of New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
April 5, 2016
I enjoy this book for its utility but not much else: this is a breezy walk-through of Malcolm X's life judiciously preened from The Autobiography of Malcolm X, one of the most kickass books I've read. If ever anyone needed a well-paced adrenaline shot to refresh one's self of the legacy Malcolm left, by all means Baldwin's screen adaptation of the masterpiece is a sufficiently deft work. However, it is possible that Baldwin's prudent reverence for Malcolm X has led him into a tightly conservative treatment of the source material, in some ways oftentimes muting his own aesthetic to serve the greater point of Malcolm's life and message. I have no qualms with Baldwin's self-erasure insofar as it still yielded a faithful transfer of material from one medium to another, but I'm so used to Baldwin being able to imbue it with much more. This can in part also be due to being aware of his limitations in a medium unfamiliar to him.
One Day When I Was Lost is also probably best read as a companion to a double-threat of Baldwin's other non-fiction: he speaks at length about how challenging the experience of writing the screenplay was in (if I recall correctly) The Devil Finds Work and has written beautifully about Malcolm X, often being accused of echoing him in The Fire Next Time among other works. I felt I was shadowboxing with the script because I had spent a lot of time trying to summon its context within Baldwin's life and non-fiction. At the same time, I can't quite recommend reading this script "cold," or rather, without already being familiar with Baldwin's superior work.
In some ways my assessment of the book is caught in a bind: I felt very aware of my own attachment to Malcolm X's autobiography and my attachment to Baldwin's gifts as a writer even when writing about this screenplay itself. Yet it eluded me somehow. What arises from the source itself is a competent rendition of the autobiography. Baldwin's choices as a director - his choice to connect flashbacks or liberally use voice-overs - can often lead to some heavy-handed juxtapositions and pat metaphors, but again, this may only appear so on the page but might be effective in translation. (I'm still skeptical.) Baldwin has always had a great ear for dialogue, so there are no surprises there.
One Day When I Was Lost reads like a perfectly able work by someone who is perfectly able to do what he can in a medium that is out of his wheelhouse. The self-awareness does come through in his steadfast refusal to omit, or reinvent for expediency's sake. This could be due to his reverence for the subject or the awareness of his unfamiliarity with this craft. Either way, this leads to a conundrum about how well we must regard the subject material before we can assess our tolerance for taking liberties with his life for entertainment value. I like that the screenplay's not meant to entertain necessarily, but it's also no surprise that it wasn't made.
One Day When I Was Lost is also probably best read as a companion to a double-threat of Baldwin's other non-fiction: he speaks at length about how challenging the experience of writing the screenplay was in (if I recall correctly) The Devil Finds Work and has written beautifully about Malcolm X, often being accused of echoing him in The Fire Next Time among other works. I felt I was shadowboxing with the script because I had spent a lot of time trying to summon its context within Baldwin's life and non-fiction. At the same time, I can't quite recommend reading this script "cold," or rather, without already being familiar with Baldwin's superior work.
In some ways my assessment of the book is caught in a bind: I felt very aware of my own attachment to Malcolm X's autobiography and my attachment to Baldwin's gifts as a writer even when writing about this screenplay itself. Yet it eluded me somehow. What arises from the source itself is a competent rendition of the autobiography. Baldwin's choices as a director - his choice to connect flashbacks or liberally use voice-overs - can often lead to some heavy-handed juxtapositions and pat metaphors, but again, this may only appear so on the page but might be effective in translation. (I'm still skeptical.) Baldwin has always had a great ear for dialogue, so there are no surprises there.
One Day When I Was Lost reads like a perfectly able work by someone who is perfectly able to do what he can in a medium that is out of his wheelhouse. The self-awareness does come through in his steadfast refusal to omit, or reinvent for expediency's sake. This could be due to his reverence for the subject or the awareness of his unfamiliarity with this craft. Either way, this leads to a conundrum about how well we must regard the subject material before we can assess our tolerance for taking liberties with his life for entertainment value. I like that the screenplay's not meant to entertain necessarily, but it's also no surprise that it wasn't made.
June 17, 2020
James Baldwin's adaptation of The Autobiography of Malcolm X is very long and slow-paced for a screenplay. Baldwin's dialogue writing deftly code-switches between scenes, speakers, and time periods. Baldwin powerfully juxtaposes sequential scenes: We see the blatant murder of Malcolm's father Earl Little, which is then declared a suicide by a life insurance adjuster. Baldwin also introduces imagery for the full emotional impact: The teacher Mr. Ostrovski discourages a teenage Malcolm in Lansing from his aspiration of studying law due to his race. Malcolm, now a young ballroom attendant in Boston, stands before the Harvard Law School Forum and observes the Latin maxim "Equal justice under the law."
Malcolm X converts to the Nation of Islam at the mid-point of the screenplay, so the second half condenses the Hinton Johnson incident (when one police officer famously commented to the press, "No one man should have that much power"), his rise to fame as a minister and civil rights leader, his pilgrimage to Mecca, the conspiracy against him from the Nation of Islam, his conversion to Sunni Islam and assassination. It feels like many important parts were summarized too briefly in the second half, like this review.
While I liked reading this adaptation, I would recommend The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley instead.
Malcolm X converts to the Nation of Islam at the mid-point of the screenplay, so the second half condenses the Hinton Johnson incident (when one police officer famously commented to the press, "No one man should have that much power"), his rise to fame as a minister and civil rights leader, his pilgrimage to Mecca, the conspiracy against him from the Nation of Islam, his conversion to Sunni Islam and assassination. It feels like many important parts were summarized too briefly in the second half, like this review.
While I liked reading this adaptation, I would recommend The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley instead.
December 11, 2023
James Baldwin wrote exactly one screenplay — One Day When I Was Lost: A Scenario Based on Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X. This isn’t the screenplay for the 1992 Malcolm X movie starring Denzel Washington, but they are connected. The movie script was rewritten by Spike Lee from this screenplay, which Baldwin worked on with Arnold Perl until Perl’s death in 1971. Baldwin completed it in 1972, but production on the movie lagged, and a movie still hadn’t been made when Baldwin passed in 1986. The project passed through several more hands before Lee, and Baldwin’s family asked for his name to be taken off the final screenplay that was used for the film because there had been so many revisions, but Perl’s name remains.
As a text taken by itself, this script is definitely imbued with the trademark Baldwin touch with vivid, searing, imagery built on memorable lines that distill complex emotions to their essential cores. The violence of Malcolm’s past — a home burned down, his father murdered, his mother driven to mental breakdown — continually casts a shadow over his adult life and the relationships that shape him. But I think this one would probably be best read in conjunction with Haley’s book (which I have not read) and Spike Lee’s film.
As a text taken by itself, this script is definitely imbued with the trademark Baldwin touch with vivid, searing, imagery built on memorable lines that distill complex emotions to their essential cores. The violence of Malcolm’s past — a home burned down, his father murdered, his mother driven to mental breakdown — continually casts a shadow over his adult life and the relationships that shape him. But I think this one would probably be best read in conjunction with Haley’s book (which I have not read) and Spike Lee’s film.
April 11, 2018
James Baldwin is very precise and delicate in what he does and it’s timeless, it’s breathtaking. His ethics as a storyteller really stay with me and my respect for the figure can only grow the more I read and learn about his perspective and vision. A great man celebrating the life of another great man, this script is simply the most honest of tribute.
“Malcolm’s voice over :
And if I can die, having brought any light, having helped expose the racist cancer that is malignant in the body of America- all of the credit is due to Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine.
Betty’s voice over :
You are present when you are away.”
It resonates. It’s above any commentary, just so raw, heartbreaking, respectful, impactful...
I love Spike Lee’s movie and script but I’ll say this, as a Muslim, nothing was dearer to me than the way Baldwin described Malcolm’s hajj.
إنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون
“Malcolm’s voice over :
And if I can die, having brought any light, having helped expose the racist cancer that is malignant in the body of America- all of the credit is due to Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine.
Betty’s voice over :
You are present when you are away.”
It resonates. It’s above any commentary, just so raw, heartbreaking, respectful, impactful...
I love Spike Lee’s movie and script but I’ll say this, as a Muslim, nothing was dearer to me than the way Baldwin described Malcolm’s hajj.
إنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 12, 2023
This was an excellent read. The screenplay format brings vivid detail to the Autobiography of Malcolm X and a deeper sense of the man by focusing on the many life altering moments that shaped him. It creates a more complete and ultimately a far more moving narrative.
September 5, 2022
Simple but fantastic
April 7, 2018
"You are present when you are away." -Betty Shabazz
Baldwin's screenplay- if only it had come to be!
Brief notes- characterization is wonderful and Baldwin's love for Malcolm shines through.
It's impossible to read without imagining the screenplay in comparison to Spike Lee's film. Lee's was great and Baldwin's reads like an equal- perhaps it's better quality is continually showing what would be the viewer how Malcolm's past relationships- with mother and murdered father, fallen black girlfriend and white lover, loyal Shorty, aging Archie, and so forth- always influenced his own personal movement.
The dialogue is especially powerful during the scenes of Malcolm answering the questions of reporters and the time spent in pilgrimage.
The short version- unique for Baldwin and a great read.
Baldwin's screenplay- if only it had come to be!
Brief notes- characterization is wonderful and Baldwin's love for Malcolm shines through.
It's impossible to read without imagining the screenplay in comparison to Spike Lee's film. Lee's was great and Baldwin's reads like an equal- perhaps it's better quality is continually showing what would be the viewer how Malcolm's past relationships- with mother and murdered father, fallen black girlfriend and white lover, loyal Shorty, aging Archie, and so forth- always influenced his own personal movement.
The dialogue is especially powerful during the scenes of Malcolm answering the questions of reporters and the time spent in pilgrimage.
The short version- unique for Baldwin and a great read.
October 30, 2020
One would like to think we do not need to kill a man because he speaks the truth to power, but it would seem that even Malcolm X had his enemies inside the Church of Islam. We will likely never know who killed him, and at this point I am unsure what would be served by finding out. Justice? No, true justice would be Malcolm X alive and, well, being Malcolm X. So there can be no justice, only retribution, revenge, or maybe forgiveness. Maybe. So, among others things X - films, interviews, books, art of many types - we get James Baldwin's genius applied to the man. Would that this film had ever been made! Having read Malcolm X and Baldwin, I see much affinity in the men. A great respect at the very least, immense stores of intellect and strength. Baldwin tried to get this screenplay, of a sort, made into a film, but the powers that were (are and will be...) diluted it so that he just took his script and walked away. And we are less for it, but none of that is laid at the feet of Baldwin for his refusal to have his work, his efforts, whitewashed and softened. This is a beautiful piece of writing. All the mechanisms utilized besides simply the words - and powerful and lovely they are! - bring some supreme immensity to the work. Camera angles, voiceovers, settings, images, audio clips (written out, of course!). Amazing. Baldwin is an artist of unparalleled skills, and this is another example of his gifts broadened into a new-ish arena. Lovely, dark, and deep.
October 27, 2022
More than a curio, this unfilmed screenplay by James Baldwin starts off as a pretty great adaptation of Malcolm X's autobiography. He does an excellent job flickering through time, using voiceover and montage to show the time and history filtered through Malcolm's mind and how it shaped his view of the world. Even on the page, it's tremendously evocative.
The back-half of the screenplay, after his conversion to Nation of Islam (here referred to only as "The Movement"), is where it becomes both more conventional and a lot weaker in expressing what was interesting about Malcolm X's life. The sense of viewing the world through his eyes almost completely falls out, replaced by the Cliff's Notes key points of the narrative. Baldwin also leans on creating composite characters that simplify and bear most of the dramatic weight, ensuring it doesn't become completely incoherent.
By comparison, I would say Spike Lee's adaptation years later had the opposite set of strengths — a weaker early section in a film that becomes utterly electric after his conversion. Helped along by Denzel's captivating performance, Lee captures what was so fascinating and inspirational about Malcolm X as a political figure. Perhaps the extra two decades of distance gave Lee more clarity about Malcolm's impact, just as someone adapting the book today would be able to fold in Manning Marable's extra investigative work.
The back-half of the screenplay, after his conversion to Nation of Islam (here referred to only as "The Movement"), is where it becomes both more conventional and a lot weaker in expressing what was interesting about Malcolm X's life. The sense of viewing the world through his eyes almost completely falls out, replaced by the Cliff's Notes key points of the narrative. Baldwin also leans on creating composite characters that simplify and bear most of the dramatic weight, ensuring it doesn't become completely incoherent.
By comparison, I would say Spike Lee's adaptation years later had the opposite set of strengths — a weaker early section in a film that becomes utterly electric after his conversion. Helped along by Denzel's captivating performance, Lee captures what was so fascinating and inspirational about Malcolm X as a political figure. Perhaps the extra two decades of distance gave Lee more clarity about Malcolm's impact, just as someone adapting the book today would be able to fold in Manning Marable's extra investigative work.
May 16, 2024
I love most of James Baldwins novels and essay collections, but yet again, he loses me when it comes to his plays and screenplays. Like The Amen Corner and Blues For Mister Charlie, One Day When I Was Lost suffers from its slow pacing and overly descriptive writing that doesn’t give the work a chance to breathe. The writing is stunning, of course, but it doesn’t quite work in a screenplay, it doesn’t feel natural and comes across as really forced. Being that James knew Malcom X personally, I was intrigued and wanted to read this to see if he’d bring a human touch to Malcom and his story, but sadly, this was pretty much a breezy walk-through instead of a deep dive that you’d think would come from someone who knew the man himself. There are moments of pretty fine screenwriting when it comes to the descriptions, but not much else leaves much of an impression. It was James Baldwin’s reimagining of what Malcolm said and did and felt, that in and of itself makes this worth the read, but I wish it was less direct and more impactful.
May 10, 2017
Interesting screenplay by James Baldwin of Malcom X. It's been a while since I have seen the Spike Lee Malcolm X movie and I think it'd be cool to see how it compares. Briskly paced, the story contains three large units -- Malcolm growing up, Malcolm in prison and transformation to Muslim, Malcolm's rise in public that led to his assassination.
The images and message pique interest in the topic, but don't delve too deeply into it. I'm left wondering how much is fact and even names are largely anonymous (no last names). I have not read much James Baldwin and perhaps reading his only screenplay is not the greatest means of exposure.
That said, I enjoyed it very much and look forward to reading more of his work and about Malcolm X.
The images and message pique interest in the topic, but don't delve too deeply into it. I'm left wondering how much is fact and even names are largely anonymous (no last names). I have not read much James Baldwin and perhaps reading his only screenplay is not the greatest means of exposure.
That said, I enjoyed it very much and look forward to reading more of his work and about Malcolm X.
January 19, 2024
Really enjoyed this, despite going into it clearly not doing my research and knowing this was a screen play based off Alex Haley’s autobiography of Malcom X. Having read the original autobiography, it was incredibly useful for context sake as Baldwin skims over major parts of the autobiography (understandably so) for the context of the screenplay. I really enjoyed it but frankly liked the autobiography much more and would recommend that over this, but then again Baldwin is such an incredible writer and continually keeps me hooked.
May 23, 2024
Having never realized this book existed; James Baldwin's near screenplay adaptation of Alex Haley's Autobiography of Malcolm X. Reading it one gets a rough draft of Spike Lee's ,masterful Malcolm X film. Its a brisk read, rendering Malcolm's life story into more often superb runs of dialogue, and exploding into life during the books' middle and final sections. The book's title comes from an old gospel song, I Know It Was The Blood for Me which underscores Malcolm X's life story as a kind of sacred American text. A great and important read
January 25, 2018
It’s a shame this screenplay was not turned into a film. James Baldwin clearly understands cinema and writes for the screen so well. I don’t know who was in talks to direct this but it’d definitely have to be a top tier director. These so much going on here that many would lose the groundedness of the scenes
June 10, 2023
Pacy and earnest telling of Malcolm X's life. Voice and movement is well done, mixing at times present and past. Rare to see such sympathetic portrayal of Muslim belief against a harsh critique of American capitalism. Baldwin's screenplay gives insight and appreciation into the civil rights movement, showing the strength and tension within it. Really good.
March 29, 2024
I read a lot of Baldwin. I think this book did make less impression on me than it makes on the people who live in the USA or people who already know more about US-history, the racism, the Black Muslim Movement and Malcolm X. I liked the way Baldwin describes the changes Malcolm X goes through and I think the screenplay is sure good enough for a succesful movie.
November 22, 2024
A tantalizing portrait of what could have been. If Spike Lee's Malcolm X movie was the David Lean version, then the Baldwin film would have been the Ken Russell version. Stylized and impressionist, with idea strands that tie together into a complex picture. It does feel like a glimpse into an alternate reality more than a self contained project, but I'm sincerely glad it exists.
February 2, 2023
I really like the concept of this book- a play based on the autobiography of Malcolm X. Baldwin's lyricism is beautiful. I could envision everything in my head. It left me wanting to read the Autobiography of Malcolm X.
February 26, 2017
This was exactly what I needed - quick, fast read because it's in screenplay format, with all the fire of Baldwin's writing and Malcolm X's life.
October 20, 2020
Amazing
James Baldwin imagery is amazing . I felt as if I was actually visualizing the story taking place . The reader gets a more intimate view of Malcolm X.
James Baldwin imagery is amazing . I felt as if I was actually visualizing the story taking place . The reader gets a more intimate view of Malcolm X.
July 7, 2021
Excellent refresher for my 30-years-ago reading of Autobiography of Malcolm X.
August 22, 2022
Baldwin's screenplay adaptation of Malcolm X's autobiography. Powerful, stylish, emotional rendition of his incredible life story. Good refresher.
April 8, 2023
Best of you've already read The Autobiography of Malcolm X. A poetic, cinematic adaptation of the autobiography.
June 7, 2024
I did not know that master writer and activist James Baldwin wrote a screenplay about the life of Malcolm X, adapted from his immortal memoir written alongside Alex Haley.
This screenplay is poetic, weaving scenes of violence, anger, sexual desire and the events that would propel Malcolm X into one of America's foremost leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
Like most of Baldwin's works, this is written with biting language, dialogue that comes from heartbreak, scenes that are surreal and dreamlike, weaving the present with flashbacks.
I did not know that Baldwin's screenplay would morph into the adaptation that Arnold Perl and Spike Lee would later immortalize on film, starring Denzel Washington in 1992. But knowing that Spike Lee knew Baldwin had attempted to write such a monumental biopic- looking back from my knowledge of the iconic film, and my viewings of it- a lot of the scenes are vintage Baldwin.
This screenplay is poetic, weaving scenes of violence, anger, sexual desire and the events that would propel Malcolm X into one of America's foremost leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
Like most of Baldwin's works, this is written with biting language, dialogue that comes from heartbreak, scenes that are surreal and dreamlike, weaving the present with flashbacks.
I did not know that Baldwin's screenplay would morph into the adaptation that Arnold Perl and Spike Lee would later immortalize on film, starring Denzel Washington in 1992. But knowing that Spike Lee knew Baldwin had attempted to write such a monumental biopic- looking back from my knowledge of the iconic film, and my viewings of it- a lot of the scenes are vintage Baldwin.
December 30, 2023
One Day When I Was Lost is a screenplay by James Baldwin based on The Autobiography of Malcolm X written by Alex Haley. I am copying from a recently located document and hope the following quotes far from One Day When I Was Lost.
"Why should a citizen have to fight for his civil rights?"
"...always distrust a person who's afraid to answer a question~"
"I know all of you have better sense than to mess with a man who's not afraid to die."
"...when a dress is torn, you can sew it up, make it do a while longer. But when a dress is in rags you just have to throw it away." (my note: somethings in society are not fixable, need to start anew)
"The true Islam has shown me that a blanket indictment of all white people is as wrong as when whites make blanket indictments against blacks."
"Why should a citizen have to fight for his civil rights?"
"...always distrust a person who's afraid to answer a question~"
"I know all of you have better sense than to mess with a man who's not afraid to die."
"...when a dress is torn, you can sew it up, make it do a while longer. But when a dress is in rags you just have to throw it away." (my note: somethings in society are not fixable, need to start anew)
"The true Islam has shown me that a blanket indictment of all white people is as wrong as when whites make blanket indictments against blacks."
September 26, 2016
Interesting read for those who're familiar with Baldwin's better known work and would like to get a better feel of his other writings. I read it alongside "The Devil Finds Work" where he discusses in detail working on the script and his reasons for later abandoning the project. Apparently part of the script was used by Spike Lee's in his Autobiography of Malcolm X, but it was decided that Lee's film represented Malcolm in a very different fashion than Baldwin had intended and so Baldwin's name was left out of the credits. For a screenplay that was never made into a movie, it's surprisingly rich and full of imagery, and much longer than the traditional 100-120 page length of most movie scripts.
April 5, 2015
As a longtime fan of James Baldwin, I've had this book in my sights for a long time but didn't get down to actually read it until a little before now last year.
While I don't remember it really hitting me, I found it to be a great refresher of the life of Malcolm X whose autobiography I read so many years ago as a freshman/sophomore in high school (I think I actually read it for my 10th grade AP US History course with Dr. Paul Dickler, one of my greatest early teachers, over the summer before the start of sophomore year).
I also remember being struck by Baldwin's skill as a writer of scenes and thought it would be a great read for any aspiring playwright/screenwriter.
While I don't remember it really hitting me, I found it to be a great refresher of the life of Malcolm X whose autobiography I read so many years ago as a freshman/sophomore in high school (I think I actually read it for my 10th grade AP US History course with Dr. Paul Dickler, one of my greatest early teachers, over the summer before the start of sophomore year).
I also remember being struck by Baldwin's skill as a writer of scenes and thought it would be a great read for any aspiring playwright/screenwriter.
November 20, 2015
I should watch Spike Lee's film on Malcolm X. Though here, I though that Terrence Malick (or someone with his sensibility, since Baldwin's film requests seem to echo Malick's) could direct this, and you might get a decent though sprawling film. It does seem like Baldwin didn't want to cut away any of the source material, which is fascinating nonetheless. Some sturdy dialogues but there's a lot to sift through.
August 1, 2025
i don't usually read screenplays and i wasn't too sure if i would like this or not, but it was very good! it gives you an outline of Malcolm X's life and insight into his role in the American civil rights movement. i flew through this!
August 14, 2009
good Baldwin on Malcolm.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews