The February, 1964 fight between boxers Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston has gone down in history as one of the most memorable moments in boxing. The image of Clay standing over Liston’s unconscious body has been made into everything from T-shirts to coffee mugs. In the audience that night was Clay’s long time friend, Jim Brown, famed athlete in his own right. Brown, who announced the fight for his friend, had plans of debauchery in celebration of Clay’s new title of heavyweight boxing champion of the world.
The actual events of that night are unknown, but many have speculated and the new Amazon Prime release One Night In Miami, directed by Regina King and based on the playwright Kemp Powers’ production has reopened that discussion. The movie recreates and reimagines the events that occurred that night at the Hampton House Motel in Overtown, FL. The quartet, made up of boxer Cassius Clay, civil rights activist Malcolm X, singer and songwriter Sam Cooke, and Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown gathered together to celebrate Clay’s victory, however, the not so chance encounter becomes a much more serious discussion as the friends consider their careers, social justice, racial inequality, ideological differences, and the burdens and responsibilities they bear as public figures during the height of the Civil Rights Movement.
One Night in Miami, was the debut play written by Kemp Powers, first performed in 2013 as a 90 minute, one-act play. The production won three LA Drama Critics Circle Awards, four NAACP Theatre Awards and the European premiere in London (2016) was the first dramatic portrayal of boxer Muhammad Ali, since his death that same year at the age of 74. Ali’s family gave their blessing to the production.
As far as movies go this one was an experience I’m happy to be part of, the movie itself was talked about in so much detail that i feel like my black card would’ve been revoked if I hadn’t watched it. On the other hand, it’s not really my usual request for cinema. I spent more time guessing at which parts were made up and which parts were rooted in truth.
I love history and period pieces but found this one a little hard to track. As a period drama, the movie draws from historical references to piece together the imagined conversations between four friends who also happen to be cultural icons. We see these larger than life figures in a new light as friends and brothers, but the movie for me left more questions than answers. Let’s take the four men chosen for example, how did they even come to be together.
Malcolm and Cassius were friends, but Malcolm X also served as Clay’s spiritual advisor. We see the two praying at the start of the movie, and it’s Malcolm who convinces Clay to convert to Islam. Originally assigned by the Nation of Islam (NOI), to recruit Clay (viewing it as an opportunity to draw more attention to the movement.) Malcolm was successful, and Clay converted to Islam following that night in Fl. Clay would later change his name to Muhammad Ali, and align himself with Elijah Muhammad after Malcolm X officially denounced the Nation in 1964. That effectively ended their friendship. So really can we call them friends?
Jim Brown was there to provide radio commentary, he’s the only one that made sense in being present. The NFL legend had planned a huge post-fight party, but Clay told Brown, he needed to talk. The film explores Brown’s decision to leave football in favor of acting, and he confides in Clay that he’s about to make his big-screen debut. Jim Brown seems to be there as peacemaker. He seems to get along with everyone and yet it’s clear he has his own feelings on things and makes them known.
I’m not sure how I feel about Sam Cooke’s role in the movie, or how he came to be involved with any of the other men. Cooke was commercially successful, and for the time period had a level of control over his career that was almost unheard. In the movie Brown points out that Cooke enjoys an autonomy that he and Clay do not, (as they physically perform based on white owners) and unlike Malcolm, Cooke has a real job, (being a political activist was not looked at as employment). Cooke wrote his own songs, owned the publishing rights to his work, and founded a record label that showcased Black artists. I learned more about Sam Cooke from this movie than I had from any history book, yet I didn’t find myself liking him. He seemed like the kind of person who was preoccupied with impressing people who could care less about him. Spending large amounts of money in establishments where he wasn’t even welcome to enter through the lobby. His feud with Malcolm which took up the bulk of the movie, seemed suspicious.
In fact the entire evening was strange, why would these four men, four presumed equals choose to hide out in a hotel room on the night of one of their greatest victories, and to debate politics no less? What would be the point? At times Sam and Malcolm don’t even seem like they are friends AT ALL. This feels more like a group of people where two of them are actually friends, (Clay and Jim) one of them is cool with everybody (Jim) and two of them don’t even really know each other that well (Sam and Malcolm). It all just seems like a bad idea in hindsight. The group sits around debating their roles and traits in history, over ice cream. Sam and Jim seem are taken aback to hear Cassius wants to become Muslim. Sam and Malcolm spend the rest of the movie berating each other for their choices and stances on Civil Rights and what it means to impact the movement. That’s really everything there was after the Liston fight.
The cast list is worth mentioning, Kingsley Ben-Adir (Malcolm X), Eli Goree (Muhammed Ali), Aldis Hodge (Jim Brown), Leslie Odom Jr. (Sam Cooke), and Lance Reddick (Bodyguard) in the lead roles. I’d never heard of Kingsley Ben – Adir before this movie but I thought his performance was well executed. He played a softer more vulnerable Malcolm and thusly he was able to portray the figure in a different way. I’d only seen Eli Goree in trailers for the Star Wars movie, and also thought his performance was ok. I’m a big fan of Aldis Hodge and I know he has acting prowess, Jim’s character seemed to play the background to everyone else in the room. I thought Leslie Odom’s Sam Cook was great because I genuinely felt irritated by that man as a whole. It takes a good actor to illicit that kind of feeling.
Just gonna scratch this one off my watchlist, it was just “okay” in my opinion but still happy I watched it.
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