X-Men3 and its Symbolism

X-men3 was released today at the start of Bank Holiday Weekend. For those who have seen the first two films in the trilogy, you will recognise that the central theme of the movies is that of the intolerance shown towards the mutants by humans and the vastly different approaches by the two mutant leaders towards the problem. If while you have been watching the trilogy you have seen parallels with the civil rights movement in America in the 1960s you are not alone. There are obvious clues strewn throughout the three movies to keep this undercurrent alive.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, are the two African American leaders whose perspectives are mirrored by that of Professor Xavier and Magneto. Where MLK thought that integration would lead to freedom; Malcolm X preached that separation was the way to emancipation of the black race. In the film Professor Xavier and the X-men want to live with humans, they want integration and thus fight for peace. Magneto and his followers, like the NOI under Brother Malcolm, have lost faith in the justice system of the dominant racial class and seek to take the situation into their own hands.

Some of the obvious clues thrown in as eye candy include:
X1: The film ends with Xavier playing chess with Magneto in a plastic jail cell. Magneto tells the Professor that he will continue fighting the humans 'by any means necessary' (A phrase commonly associated with Malcolm X in the 1960s).
X3: At one point in the film when Mystique is called upon to testify, she repiles, “I don’t answer to my slave name.” (Anyone remember Kunta Kinte?). When Kelsey Grammer’s Beast recalled a time when things were different, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, retorted, “Did you just call me boy?”

Those who believe the parallels are not purely coincidental may have taken heart from the opening scene of X3 where the two leaders are working together to resolve societal ills and hoped for a happy ending. Sadly it wasn't to be and X3 falls flat on its face with the portrayal of Magneto as an evil man who lets his ambition lead his desire to progress his race.

Personally I would have prefered a greater level of respect for the need for a spectrum of views and the necessity of a Malcolm X character to balance out the non-violent MLK, with that perhaps X-men the movie might have proven more than just a comical parody of real life events and become an education into what the civil rights movement could have been.