Frank R. Annunziato.Hollywood's Reconstruction of Malcolm X and Jimmy Hoffa. RM 6(4):117-127 The ideological grid through which, in the Ronald Reagan/George Bush era, both Malcom X and Jimmy Hoffa - two figures thoroughly despised by liberal elites of the era - were refashioned as cultural icons of American liberalism is examined via analysis of two recent films. Cinematic representations of Malcolm X and Hoffa as greedy for power and prone to violence are viewed as the means by which these working class heroes were both deprived of their politics and humanity and converted into quasi-religious symbols.