‘Malcolm X’ Draws Crowds in Most of L.A. on Opening Day

Spike Lee’s long-awaited epic about the life of black nationalist Malcolm X opened across the nation in 1,124 theaters Wednesday, attracting a solid turnout in most of the Los Angeles area.

A spokesman for Warner Bros. said the film attracted strong audiences throughout the area, regardless of the ethnic makeup of the neighborhoods where it is playing. He said no attendance figures will be available until today.

At the Baldwin Entertainment Complex on South La Brea Avenue, for example, all five shows of “Malcolm X” were sold out. All but a handful of ticket buyers were black.

The $34-million, three-hour, 21-minute film biography, one of the most heavily publicized films of the year, drew an enthusiastic response from many who wanted to be among the first to see it.

Francine Roberts, 40, a telephone sales representative, heeded film director Lee’s call to blacks to take off time from work to see his movie at the Baldwin Hills complex. Pronouncing the film “just great,” Roberts, a Windsor Hills resident, said she might have liked it even better as a television miniseries. “They tried to jam a lot into three hours,” she said.

A.D. Slice, 29, a self-employed salesman from Windsor Hills, said he knew nothing about Malcolm before he entered the theater. “Once you learn about your history you feel better about yourself,” Slice said.

An almost exclusively black and Latino audience crowded into three theaters at the United Artists Valley Plaza in North Hollywood on Wednesday afternoon. Among them was Michelle Williams, 15, a 10th-grader at Van Nuys High School who has read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” on which the film is largely based, and is writing a report on the book. “I thought the movie was excellent, and it made me very sad that (Malcolm) died after he’d been through so much and that his (Muslim) brothers betrayed him,” she said.

Kimberly Stephen, 26, of North Hollywood, who works in the entertainment industry, said the movie left a positive and indelible impression. “I’m an educated person who went to a black university,” she said. “And even though we’re taught by our professors about black leaders and politicians, this movie really enhanced what we were taught about them.”

Although attendance was strong in most areas, in mostly white Simi Valley only 32 people, including some blacks, turned up for the 12:30 p.m. show in a theater at the Edwards Mountain Gate 7 complex. Another 24 people attended the 2 p.m. show in a second theater.

“I liked it,” said Ed Warren, 53, of Moorpark, who took time off from his aircraft repair business to see the film. “I think he was probably the most misunderstood black man who was trying to do something for his people.”

Warren, who is white, said the massive publicity blitz encouraged him to see the film early. “It’s a part of history that we should all know about,” he said.

Dean Jones, a 56-year-old minister from Simi Valley, attended the first show. “I think it’s important that I expose myself to things I’m not really familiar with,” he said.

In Westwood, where merchants had feared the possibility of violence, additional police officers were put on patrol and private security guards were hired, but the film didn’t draw the large crowds that were seen in other parts of the city.

“It should have sold out,” said Peggy Kidwell, a member of the Westwood Village Assn.’s executive board, a merchant group. “We have to get more people out to Westwood. We should have had a lot more people in the village tonight.”

Some merchants were concerned that negative publicity about the possibility of violence may have driven patrons away from Westwood on opening night.

Merchants requested the additional security because many feared the possibility that violence might erupt as it did when “New Jack City,” a film about urban violence, opened in 1991.

Hundreds of youths broke windows, looted stores and vandalized cars in Westwood after the premiere of that film, which opened several days after the beating of motorist Rodney G. King.

Los Angeles Police Officer Francine Spada said, “Everything has been going smoothly. There have been no difficulties, no arrests.”

Meanwhile, prominent African-Americans who saw the film at special screenings this week praised it effusively as a compelling and moving portrait of a major figure in U.S. history.

“I was inspired. It was a walk-back through a period of history in which I lived and worked,” said the Rev. Jesse Jackson. A civil rights worker under Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s and 1960s, Jackson saw the film Tuesday at a private screening in Birmingham, Ala., and called it “a must movie for blacks and whites.”

“The part that made me weep was watching the conspiracy unfolding, watching (Malcolm) being killed so young, so needlessly, a victim of black-on-black crime,” Jackson said.

“It’s an extremely powerful movie,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who attended the movie’s premiere Monday night in New York. “Malcolm’s life has meaning for all of us today, particularly young African-Americans.”

Correspondents David J. Fox, Kathleen Kelleher and James Maiella contributed to this story.