I watched the movie and read the script at the same time (this is a great exercise, one I heartily…

I watched the movie and read the script at the same time (this is a great exercise, one I heartily recommend). The movie hews extremely close to the script. As far as I can tell, there is only one scene which didn't make the final cut, where a woman flirts briefly with Sam who then intersects with Malcolm finishing up his phone boot call home. An extraneous moment, so it's easy to see why it was cut.

I have three observations about the plot:

(1) Bookend structure: The script begins introducing the four main characters (for 18 pages, a long sequence). The script ends visualizing the end point for each characters. It's a clean way to convey the respective arcs of the four characters.

(2) There are two "performances" which anchor the bookends: The beginning is Cassius Clay defeating Sonny Liston to become heavyweight champion of the world. The ending is the moving performance by Sam Cooke on The Tonight Show, debuting his song "A Change is Gonna Come." The first one is filled with hope as Clay overcomes sceptics and proves doubters wrong. The last one is ironic, "preaching" a perspective that change is going to come. And it does: Sam Cooke moves beyond pop songs with his writing; Jim Brown quits the NFL to pursue an acting career; Cassius Clay joins the Nation of Islam; but the irony is that Malcolm is martyred when he is assassinated. Yes, change can happen, but some things - violence against Blacks - remain the same.

(3) What really caught my eye is the construction of the narrative in this respect:

The Plotline is about Malcolm attempting to get Clay on board with his plan to split from the Nation of Islam and start a new movement. Malcolm carries that agenda with him throughout the story. The other three are more about just being together and wanting to revel in Clay's victory.

But that's not where the focus of the emotional energy of the story lies. That is the Malcolm - Sam storyline. These two represent polar opposites from a philosophical perspective as they understand power entirely differently, or so it seems. Sam is about real power being economic. Malcolm is about forcing systemic change to empower the Black community. Jim and Cassius slot into that storylines, but it really is about these two divergent personalities hashing out their differences, then finally discovering some common ground.

[The breakthrough is Malcolm's retelling of the time he saw Sam in concert in Boston. More on that in Part 3.]

If one were to try to pinpoint plotline points in the script, they would not align with the simplistic screenplay paradigms like Save The Cat (e.g., Act One doesn't end until 33 when the four guys arrive at the Hampton Hotel, 8 pages late per STC). But the story *does* have a three-act structure:

Act One: Introductions and Clay's heavyweight champion fight with Sonny Liston.

Act Two: The back and forth between the four lead characters culminating in a heated exchange between Malcolm and Sam, followed by Sam's departure (83).

Act Three: Malcolm's retelling of the Sam Boston concert event, then Sam's Tonight Show performance.

I can almost guarantee that Kemp Powers had no concern for any screenplay formula or paradigm, he simply followed his innate storytelling instincts in shaping the plot. And it works.