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Kamryn Johnson

Corrubvius-Powel

Composition II

12 February 2021

One Night In Miami Movie Review

On a particular night four Black Icons; Cassius Clay, the youngest heavyweight

champion in the world (at the time), Malcolm X the activist, Sam Cooke the man with the voice,

and Jim Brown the halfback for the Cleveland Browns. The four legends were the poster boys

for African Americans in activism, music, and sports.

The film directed by Regina King takes place after Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston in

the Miami Convention Hall. He then celebrates with his famous friends in a private meeting at

the Hampton House Motel. This night, Feb 25, 1964, is a range of emotions and discussions of

what it means to hold the responsibility as a successful black man during the Civil Rights

movement.

ONIM from play to film was inspired by Kemp Powers’ written play. As you can see

throughout the movie, the setting does not seem to change. However, as an audience member, I

was so intrigued by the dialect that I didn’t care. Films such as Denzel Washington’s “Fences.”,

are a terrible example of play to film. The dialect was terrible, and the setting was not interesting,

it's an entire hour of watching the characters talking and arguing on the porch. ONIM does a

great job of keeping the dialect strong, so the audience doesn’t bother to notice the setting didn’t

change for nearly the whole film.

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Regina King, who is becoming a great director in my opinion, chose talented actors.

Though I’ve seen these men in other films, this just might be their debut film. The actors; Leslie

Odom Jr (Cooke), Kingsley Ben-Adir (Malcolm X), Eli Goree (Cassius Clay/ Muhammad Ali),

and Alid Hodge (Jim Brown) delivered their characters. They were spot on with the voices,

mannerisms, movements, facial expressions, etc. Cassius Clay is not just known for being one of

the best heavyweight champions in the world. Yet, he is also known for his slurred, yet fast and

cocky-sounding speech, which years later we find out is most likely due to his Parkinson’s

disease (that’s a whole other story). Confidence rang through his voice and actions and you can

see that clearly in Goree’s performance. Malcolm X as well spoke in a fast-paced tone, and KBA

skillfully played his part in this film. Both men had huge shoes to fill seeing as I didn’t think

there would be a better performance than Will Smith in “Ali.” or Denzel Washington in

“Malcolm X.”

As I stated earlier, the dialogue amongst the characters is so intriguing. Regina and Kemp

came together and created a fictional dialogue, with non-fictional characters. What’s amazing is

we are certain that this night happened, yet we don’t know what was truly said or done in that

motel room. Regina and Kemp allow the audience to understand the meaning of code-switching.

The icons come together in private and are allowed to detach themselves from white America.

They can take off their masks and be their true-selves around one another. The arguments, the

speeches, the comedic sense, the authenticity, is what truly makes this one of the best films of the

year.

ONIM takes place during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. Which at the time to be

a successful black man was a huge opportunity. Cassius and Jim are perfect examples; To be one

of the biggest faces of their sport as a black man was rare. At the beginning of the movie, we see
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Jim visiting what seems to be the porch of an old friend’s house. This man, whom we come to

know is Carlton Hodge, is a member of Jim’s home town St. Simmons, Georgia. The reunion

seems genuine and they seem to have a good relationship. In the background, we hear Carlton’s

daughter moving furniture. She insists that Carlton helps, thus ending the conversation between

him and Jim. Jim offers to help, and Carlton bluntly states that he’s never “allowed n**gers in

the house.” followed by a door slam. This goes to show that it didn’t matter if you were the best

halfback in the NFL, the youngest heavyweight champion in the 60s, one of the most talented

well-known African American musicians, or one of the biggest voices for activism. You are still

black and will never be as credible as the average white man.

I enjoyed ONIM because it was nice to see such a calming black film that wasn’t about

slavery or police brutality. Though it takes place during the Civil Rights Movement, there was no

violence that caused stress afterward. It was nice to see a black film that wasn’t so focused on the

negative. As much as I enjoy those types of historic films, I don’t want to have to watch them on

repeat. For the past few years, most black films main focus was violence directed towards the

black community. As educational and important as those films are, that should NOT be what our

entire community and race revolve around.

The overall great thing about ONIM is the fact that we get to see the characters talk

amongst one another. They are simply black men sitting in a hotel having a conversation,

drinking, and arguing. These types of conversations are a norm in the black community. Whether

it be in hair salons, barbershops, family cookouts, after church/ funeral services. It's our safe

space as African Americans, where we can turn the code-switching off, take our masks off and

be ourselves.