‘One Night in Miami’ Review: A Personal Retelling of the Sixties
Emotional truth leads the narrative of this impactful historical drama.
The sixties stand out in the collective memory of the United States for a myriad of reasons — among them is the shifting political consciousness within a public pulled in all directions by growing calls for justice, and the backlash that these calls were met with. Among the many movements throughout the era, the most significant and foundational is the Black freedom struggle, which held many diverse and competing principles throughout various circles. What would come to the surface in American public life is the debate inside the movement on whether freedom was best sought out through methods of integration, or ones more focused on self-determination and liberation. Regina King’s directorial debut One Night in Miami thoughtfully brings to screen these contentious feelings that heated the political landscape then and continue to inform the discourses of today with careful attention to performance and character.
The film takes place largely within the confines of Miami’s Hampton House, where Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), singer Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and NFL star Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) are set to celebrate the world heavyweight championship win of Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), then referred to still as Cassius Clay. The air of celebration, however, is dampened by Malcolm X, who turns the night’s festivities towards an intellectual discussion concerning these men’s roles in the movements they are surrounded by and inhabit. The primary conflict among these men is that between Malcolm X and Sam Cooke — the former expressing his disappointment in the singer for shying away from speaking out about the movement to appease his white audience, and Cooke admonishing X for his militance. The four men contained within the room go through the motions of airing their grievances against each other, flowing between moments of combative debate to quiet reconciliation. These figures are portrayed passionately in their disagreements and discussions, yet what makes the film most compelling is the way in which they are allowed to be human even in the face of their personas.
King directs performances that authentically acknowledge the challenges these historical figures faced in their time while taking the liberties necessary to inspire viewers to relate to them in ways their iconic stature makes challenging. The major events these men were are part of are only the context for the story that is pursued, which is one that puts imagining the intimate realities of these men at the center. They are not beholden to the way in which they are symbolically remembered; instead, a viewer is called to experience the emotions that surrounded the historical events presented, rather than the events themselves.
Malcolm X, whose historical image is one denoted by an outspoken and intellectual stoicism, is given the space to talk gently with his daughter on the phone and weep about the state of the world in front of Jim Brown. Muhammad Ali, who is contemporarily remembered in a mostly saccharine way devoid of his strong and controversial convictions, is given the space to advocate plainly for Black power to Sam Cooke on screen. Together, Ali and Malcolm X are also given the space in this film to be men of faith praying together, (in a scene that though personal in its performance, teeters on exoticism in the ways the camerawork, soundtrack, and editing come together to present Islam as a foreign and mystical spirituality.) Given all of these moments would have occurred behind closed doors, they are not created for the purposes of historical accuracy, yet that does not mean they are lacking in truth. All of these scenes and the film as a whole focuses on the emotional sincerity of these moments, breathing life into history in ways that make the feelings of the tumultuous 1960's personal and real to a wide audience.
What One Night in Miami offers is not a dramatized play by play of major historical events, instead, it leans into imagining the private moments behind history in a way akin to a theater production (which is to be expected when the screenplay is Kemp Power’s adaptation of his 2013 play of the same name.) Power’s writing and King’s direction come together to show how powerful it is to imagine history from the lens of the feelings that surround it. It is an emotional and intellectual ride that makes this particular piece of history feel more accessible, with many moments that call us to see how much the past stays within the present.
In one of the most impactful moments of the film, Malcolm X passionately exclaims “Black people are dying. Every day. And a line has got to be drawn in the sand… A line that says either you stand on this side with us, or you stand over on that side against us.” These words speak to a truth that is felt as much today in the United States than at the height of the Civil Rights era, and this film reminds us that there is immense power in bringing these stories to the present day to provide viewers with the insight into the past necessary to help guide us in the present and into the future as the struggles of the 1960s continue today.
One Night in Miami is available to be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.
