Customer Reviews

The River Niger / Death Of A Prophet

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Death of a Prophet" is about the last days of Malcolm X. Obviously made with a very low budget. Morgan Freeman is Morgan Freeman. From the few short clips of the real Malcolm X that I've seen I don't really see a great similarity to the real man in this film. Freeman doesn't exhibit the fire and strength of the Malcolm X I've seen and heard, but people who actually know about the man will have a much more valid opinion of Freeman's portrayal than I could ever come up with. The movie really isn't about Malcolm X's thoughts and fights. It's about his end when forces are already surrounding him. Perhaps the end is one way to start learning about the man--to know where it's all going. That's all I can really say about the film. It's one piece to a much larger puzzle. Don't expect too much from it, but it does deserve to stay alive, so it makes a good bonus to a DVD version of "The River Niger" which is a much better film.

"The River Niger" is also a fairly low budget film, but the acting is very good and the script stays on target. It's got that 70's feel to it, especially with its wonderful background music by the band War. James Earl Jones does a great job portraying a strong-hearted man struggling to maintain dignity and a sense of his source and heritage, and often with the gift of his poetry, The rough community he lives in is portrayed unapologetically and feels quite real. This movie succeeds very well in not feeling like a play. It's a movie based on the play, but not a movie of the play which too many other adaptations suffer in. There's no feeling of claustrophobia, in other words. It's not hemmed in by the sense of a stage. The poem of the title becomes a terrific glue thrown in near the end, giving the story and the character a deep resonance. Too bad the production wasn't quite up to par, probably because of the budget. It might have made it to five stars with a more solid financial backup.

I give the DVD four stars, and a well worth watching, and owning, mostly for "The River Niger." "Death of a Prophet" is simply a special bonus feature which probably would not succeed for long on its own in the retail market, but here it's couched very comfortably with a very very good film.

I'm not sure why the marketers decided to put Louis Gosset's picture on the case cover. He has only a secondary part in the film. James Earl Jones should have been on the cover instead. It's definitely his movie. The choice of Gosset for the cover is a strange curiosity.