One Night in Miami

Produced By:

Starring:

Music By Terence Blanchard

Cinematography By Tami Reiker

Edited By Tariq Anwar

Release date

Running time – 114 minutes

Budget – $16.9 million^[3][4]

One Night in Miami… is a 2020 American drama film directed by Regina King in her feature film directorial debut with a screenplay by Kemp Powers based on his stage play of the same name. The film is a fictionalized account of a February 1964 meeting of Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke in a room at the Hampton House, celebrating Ali’s surprise title win over Sonny Liston. It stars Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, and Leslie Odom Jr. in the lead roles, with Lance Reddick, Joaquina Kalukango, Nicolette Robinson, and Beau Bridges in supporting roles.

One Night in Miami premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 7, 2020, a first for an African-American female director.^[5] The film was released in limited theaters by Amazon Studios on December 25, 2020, before being released digitally on Prime Video on January 15, 2021. It received critical acclaim, with praise for King’s direction, the performances, and Powers’s screenplay. The film earned three nominations at the 93rd Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for Odom, Best Adapted Screenplay for Powers, and Best Original Song (“Speak Now”). King also earned nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Director and the Critics Choice Award for Best Director

In 1963, Cassius Clay nearly loses a boxing match to Henry Cooper at Wembley Stadium in London. At the Copacabana in New York City, soul singer Sam Cooke suffers through a performance in front of a cold, all-white audience. Returning home to Georgia, NFL player Jim Brown is received by family friend Mr. Carlton on a vast plantation. Carlton ladles praise on “the great Jim Brown,” but when Brown offers to help Carlton move some furniture, Carlton reminds Brown that “you know we don’t allow niggers in the house.” Elsewhere, Malcolm X returns home and discusses his plans to leave the Nation of Islam with his wife, Betty.

On February 25, 1964, the men are all in Miami for Clay’s title bout against Sonny Liston. X meets with Clay in a hotel room before the fight, and the two pray in a traditional Islamic fashion. That night, Brown is a ringside commentator and Cooke and Malcolm X are in the crowd as Clay upsets Liston, making him the world heavyweight champion.

Afterward, X invites the other three men to his motel room. Their hopes of a party are dashed when X makes it clear they are the only ones he invited. He wants to spend some time reflecting on their accomplishments, but tension between him and Cooke arises. X thinks Cooke has sold out the black community by pandering to white audiences, and Cooke refuses to feel guilty for his success. Clay informs the men of his plans to announce his conversion to the Nation of Islam, causing more tension. Brown discusses his plans to become a film actor, and wonders if it will go smoothly.

The conflict between X and Cooke escalates. X harshly ridicules the music Cooke has produced since finding success. Cooke insists his success and creative autonomy is itself an inspiration to the black community, and while he still cares about the black struggle in America, protest songs are not commercially viable. X confronts him with the success of Bob Dylan‘s “Blowin’ in the Wind“.

As they argue, it becomes clear that X’s antagonism of Cooke is motivated, at least in part, by the activist’s stress over his own life, especially his harassment by the FBI and fears about his schism with Elijah Muhammad. X is devastated to learn that Clay is having second thoughts about his conversion. He tells Clay that he is planning to form his own organization and asks him to join. Clay refuses, feeling betrayed by his mentor, and wondering if his conversion has been a ploy by X to attract attention to his new project. A knock at the door informs them that the press has gotten wind of the meeting. As Clay prepares to talk to the media, he asks X to come with him. When they leave, Cooke tells Brown that he has had similar thoughts about “Blowin’ in the Wind” and has already written a song, but not yet performed it.

In the aftermath of the night, Clay officially changes his name to Muhammad Ali, while X’s life is thrown into chaos as he suffers the consequences of his split with the Nation of Islam; his house is firebombed, but he completes his autobiography. Cooke debuts “A Change Is Gonna Come” on The Tonight Show. Brown leaves the NFL to pursue his movie career. The film ends with a title card with a quote from X on February 19, 1965 about the inevitability of martyrs for the cause, and that he was assassinated two days later on February 21.