Malcolm X
...r. From Malcolm’s early life, his strong bonding and the respect for his siblings helped him to grow into a person who would stand strong and take the necessary risks to help end the injustices perpetrated on the Black man in America. After the institutionalization of his mother and separation of the siblings, Malcolm eventually moved to Boston to live with his half-sister, Ella. Malcolm regarded Ella with awe and respect because of her accomplishments as a single Black woman in the early 40’s. Malcolm found a job on his own, because he wanted Ella to be proud of him and to see that he could be someone and succeed, also. Later, while in prison for robbery, Malcolm’s siblings played another pivotal role in his life. Wilfred first introduced Malcolm to Islam, but Wilfred received only a vicious response. Years later, Ella worked hard and pulled strings to get Malcolm transferred to a lower security facility with an emphasis on rehabilitation. Shortly thereafter, Reginald accepted Islam and the siblings decided he would have the best shot at converting Malcolm. Back in Harlem, during Malcolm’s criminal days, the two brothers had become close and shared an understanding of each other. Reginald’s method of conveying the message of Islam to Malcolm was effective. After prison, Malcolm moved in with his brother Wilfred. Here, Malcolm experienced first hand how a Muslim family lived. It was also Reginald who introduced Malcolm to Elijah Muhammad. Again, many of the siblings were together, supporting each other. Malcolm’s life took a drastic turn as he began to thrive by following Islam. Many years later Ella accepted Islam. Because of Ella’s love and understanding of Malcolm, she gave another monumental gift to him. She gave her savings for her own pilgrimage to Mecca to Malcolm. Again, Malcolm’s family is there for him at a critical point in his life’s journey No doubt there were several reasons Spike Lee chose to make the particular changes that he did. The film was targeted to a paying audience, therefore length of a movie is quite important. Though casting and finance was probably not directly an issue, flow of characters and ease of understanding is critical to an audience. Lee might have thought the issues and the powerful nature of Malcolm were enough for the audience to focus on. To produce flow and understanding for the audience, Spike Lee chose to use one character to represent the family unit for Malcolm’s childhood. But Lee does not stop there with the character Bains. This character symbolized the sibling’s strength and support throughout Malcolm’s search and growth in life. The powerful bond, strength and importance of Malcolm’s family were therefore not left out. Bains also has another effect on Malcolm life later in the story. Since Bains represented the part of the Little family, there was still a strong and respected character for Malcolm to learn from. In the film it was Bains, rather than Reginald, who introduced Malcolm to Islam, while he was in prison. Bains also introduced Malcolm to Elijah Muhammad. In the movie there was no indication as to where Malcolm lived when first released from jail. Rather, the viewer was led to think Bains was very involved with Malcolm at this time, because of Bains’ repeated appearances. Addi...