On February 25, 1964, boxer Cassius Clay thwarts the odds by snatching the heavyweight world champion title from Sonny Liston. To celebrate this momentous match, Clay joins three friends in a motel room: activist Malcolm X, footballer Jim Brown and singer Sam Cooke. Besides their fame, these four black men have in common to have reached a turning point in their respective lives. This, just as the struggle for civil rights enters a new phase with the emergence of the Black Power movement.
From this truthful episode, the playwright Kemp Powers drew a play, then a scenario, speculating on the content of this historical meeting. Directed by Regina King, One Night in Miami offers a fascinating look behind the scenes. Rightly acclaimed at the Venice Film Festival in 2020, this first feature film by the veteran actress, winner of an Oscar for If Beale Street Could Talk, turns out to be quite exceptional. It is true, Regina King has made her hand by directing episodes of the series Scandal, This is Us or Insecure.
In control, the director places the text – the word – at the center of her production: with such powerful dramatic material, there is no need for visual frills. However, economy does not rhyme here with austerity. The frequent proximity of the camera to the actors and the warm photo direction make the group’s complicity palpable. Wide shots, therefore, only reveal more of the intermittent changes in dynamics, the fruit of a series of confrontations and reconciliations.
From the outset, Regina King dispelled any fear that the exercise would turn into tele-theater. She does this not only by “opening up” the action of the play during carefully chosen passages (a run to the convenience store, a souvenir, a trip to the roof …), but by offering original dramatic material. Which consists of four successive presentations of the protagonists who, as we wrote, find themselves at a pivotal moment in their lives.
Cassius Clay is due to announce shortly that he has joined the Nation of Islam – his name will be Muhammad Ali. His friend and spiritual advisor Malcolm X, he is preparing to break not with religion, but with the Nation of Islam, condemning the behavior of its leader. A break that puts him at odds with the movement even though his radical activism has already won him many enemies on the side of the white authorities. As for Jim Brown, who enjoys immense fame, he is on the verge of becoming an actor. Finally, Sam Cooke is very successful as “king of soul”, but not with the white public he seeks to seduce.
Yesterday like now
It is in this context where each one, without the knowledge of the others, is struggling with his own anxieties, aspirations and insecurities that the said meeting occurs. Quickly, Malcolm takes Sam to task, accusing him of not using his notoriety, and his platform, for militant ends. The singer, also a wise producer, opposes that he contributes to the economic development of many black artists. Uncompromising, the pastor retorts that it is not enough, that it is not enough anymore, that their black brothers and sisters die every day in the streets.
Combined with the past, the words resonate with the present, from Black Power to Black Lives Matter. A word also on the majority portion of events confined to the bedroom: far from dramatizing the film, this closed-door section reinforces the impression of smoldering tension. We are like in a pressure cooker with the characters.
Anyway, while Cassius leaves the room to better bring back an angry Sam there, Jim stays with Malcolm. The one-on-one that follows is a lesson in acting and writing. While Jim reproaches Malcolm for being uncompromising, even for pontificating, the latter, emotional, clarifies his thought. Suddenly the a priori and hasty judgments fall: a recurring phenomenon in the film. Incidentally, Jim surprises Malcolm by revealing his acute awareness of the racism of which he is the object within an organization which claims to adulate him (the fall of the character’s introductory sequence is paralyzing).
This means that dialogue plays a particularly important role in One Night in Miami. Between debates of ideas, ego struggles and impromptu confidences, the liberated word offers a snapshot of the time of remarkable acuity. Moreover, the way in which Regina King includes in the image the passion for photography of Malcolm X, proud of his new camera, gives rise to a fascinating mise en abyme, the character immortalizing his friends while the director probes their souls to all with its own camera.
Vibrant portraits
As the third act approaches, we notice a drop in speed, a wavering, and the film is slow to regain its momentum. Impossible, however, not to shed a tearful tear during the final cut. In this regard, if One Night in Miami begins in a boxing ring, it is on a television set that he ends. In the meantime: an ethical and emotional odyssey, and above all, four vibrant portraits.
In doing so, Regina King transforms four “larger than life” characters into human beings, period. At Guardian, she explained: “I feel like we very rarely get the chance to see black men on screen portrayed as I see them, and love them, with their complexity and vulnerability and all those things that make of them what they are. “
In tune, all the actors are amazing, without exception, with however a special mention to Kingsley Ben-Adir for his beautifully tormented Malcolm X.
Here and there, an impression of melancholy emerges, poignant, diffuse… It emanates, precisely, from the character of Malcolm X, who will be riddled with bullets the following year. Sam Cooke will perish shortly after the events of the film in murky circumstances amid allegations of assault. Eventful but inspiring, Muhammad Ali’s journey ended in 2016: upon his death, he had long been a legend. Still alive, Jim Brown will subsequently come into conflict with the law for a series of allegations of violence against women.
Speaking of which, while Regina King’s film doesn’t explore these dark post-action swathes, the treatment of the scenes where Malcolm X’s wife Betty X appears acts as a reminder from the filmmaker that behind every great man there is often a woman who manages, supports and endures.
A sign that times are changing, slowly, of course, many predict that Regina King will become the first black director to be nominated for the Oscar for best director. Except that it would be deserved, it would constitute a fair return of things.
The film One Night in Miami is available on Prime Video
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