Spike Lee has said he’d like Twitter to calm down regarding director Daniel Scheinert calling Lee’s Malcolm X a “crime movie”.
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Scheinert invoked the wrath of many movie fans on the internet when he appeared on The Criterion Collection’s Closet Picks. Stating his admiration for the film, the Oscar-nominated director referred to the 1997 biopic as “maybe my favourite crime movie”.
However, Lee has now responded to the furore by telling those calling for the director to be dragged and cancelled to calm down. “I’d never heard that description before,” Lee told The Guardian. “But look, I’m not going to kill the guy. I’ve misspoken many times in my life, too.”
Lee added: “So I’m calling on Black Twitter to give the guy a break – because when Black Twitter gets on your ass, they get on your ass.”
Turning his own thoughts to his film, Lee said: “Malcolm X will stand the test of time. And that performance by Denzel still amazes me. It’s one of the greatest I’ve ever seen.”
Scheinert had been called-out on Twitter for his comment about the movie. Appearing on the web series, Closet Picks, he said: “I have a problem with movies based on true stories. I feel like it’s scary – like bad journalism – that screenwriters can just nudge the facts around. But, every once in a while a movie breaks that for me and I’m like ‘never mind this one’s incredible’.
“Love And Mercy is one, and Malcolm X is one. This is just such a riveting crime saga, like maybe my favourite crime movie. It just blew my mind when I saw it like a year ago. I’m a pretty big Spike Lee fan as a writer/director, and a very big Spike Lee fan as an actor. He just comes in so hot in this movie, and Do The Right Thing obviously.”
Some movie fans were less than impressed with Scheinert’s comments on the film, prompting a backlash. One Twitter user wrote: “Malcolm X as a crime saga. That’s quite a take. Lol [sic].”
Another critiqued the director, tweeting: “Reminder that good directors of good movies can also, like so many artists, be bizarrely ignorant. I loved Everything Everywhere All At Once, but how do you even call Malcolm X a ‘crime movie’ lmao [sic].”