King

Ten years after his assassination, this fine mini-series documents the adult life and times of Martin Luther King who despite some other fine folks in the field is recognized as premier among the black civil rights leaders. So acknowledged by the fact it is his birthday that is now a national holiday.

Paul Winfield with one magnificent voice captures the cadence and rhythm of Martin Luther King's poetical style of preaching. His abilities as an actor cover the inner emotions and the reasons that King is moved to do the work he did.

From being a newly minted minister and suitor for the hand of Coretta Scott played by Cicely Tyson we see the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s progress through the eyes of its titular leader.

In the supporting cast I like both William Jordan and Cliff DeYoung as the contrasting personalities of the brothers Kennedy. Jordan as the cool John F. Kennedy and DeYoung as the passionate Robert F. Kennedy. DeYoung really got the accent down impressively.

Martin Luther King certainly did have a private life and if he's regarded for sainthood by some it's for his achievements in advancing civil rights as opposed to any kind of probity in his private life. I doubt most could have stood up to the intense scrutiny he was under Said scrutiny was ordered by that most misanthropic of men in the last century J. Edgar Hoover the 48 year head of the FBI. Things that disturbed the social order like the civil rights movement got Hoover's attention. He spent his last years looking to discredit the movement quite unsuccessfully, but doing a lot of damage along the way. There's a quiet evil in the way Dolph Sweet portrayed him.

In fact some of the private behavior of King is shown in those documented moments before he's shot on a motel balcony in Memphis. You see him among his colleagues there in some down time and these guys could be a salty and rough house bunch, divinity degree notwithstanding.

One thing that did not make me happy was the elimination of Bayard Rustin from the story. I'm thinking Roscoe Lee Browne as Philip Harrison is Rustin and he's as eloquent as I remember him. I actually did meet him during the gay rights struggle in New York City when Rustin finally made it official. In 1978 his gay story was still a hush hush matter. Had King the mini-series been made in 1988 the year after Rustin died he no doubt would have been there in name as well as fact.

The best thing about King is that it makes the civil rights struggle of the time quite real and relevant. You understand the indignities that some minorities have heaped upon them. After that you just might make the connection for all minorities. If that happens you will have been to the mountaintop and seen the promised land.

Paul Winfield effectively showed the charisma of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a speaker and leader. He also showed as a human side to Dr. King, a man who could be scared and even cry privately, a man who could laugh and have fun with his family and friends, and yet a man who didn't understand why people wanted him to lead the movement. He didn't feel confident about his own abilities, yet he made the most of what he had and, based on what I saw here, few if any could have done better. Winfield looked too old for the younger King, and he didn't deliver the 'I have a dream' speech exactly as King did (though imitating might not have been as effective), but these are minor flaws.

And there were too many good acting performances to list. Cicely Tyson as Coretta, Ossie Davis as an angry King Sr., Dick Anthony Williams as an evil Malcolm X--just a few that I remember; there may have been others but I didn't recall the name of the characters. The only performance I was not happy with was Cliff De Young as Robert Kennedy, who came across as a whiny teenager.

This was a good presentation of the Civil Rights Movement--a little violent at times, but the violence was necessary. We saw the determination of the leaders and of ordinary people, even children. The 6-letter word starting with N was of course used a lot and no one censored it. A couple of times King's last name was changed, by opponents, to that of the small mammal with the black mask.

I was always intimidated by the length of this program, but one station in my area showed it a whole week before the King holiday, while the other waited until this past weekend. It definitely was worth seeing.

Made at a time before King had achieved public sainthood and acceptance by the ruling class, this mini-series changed the way many people felt about civil rights. Expertly scripted and directed by Abby Mann, the film centers on Paul Winfield's excellent interpretation of a man who was a great poet and writer as well as a leader. If it's ever released on DVD, it will be recognized as a classic biography.

A poster here made mention that Malcolm X and Dr. King had never met, which isn't true. They had met, once, but briefly. There's even a famous picture depicting said meeting, with the two of them smiling. Had Malcolm not been assassinated, who knows what they could have accomplished together. I would love to have been a fly on the wall for whatever the conversation they had was. I like to think that theirs would have been a strong alliance of an interfaith nature, working to address the lack of human rights, not just for black people, but for all people. They would have also address poverty together, which Dr. King was already addressing. Malcolm might have also spoken out, like King,(and eventually, Muhammad Ali, who came to Islam under the tutelage of Malcolm X)against the Vietnam War. One wonders at what might have been and weeps at what took place.

i only gave this TV movie a five star rating because the real story wasn't told a lot of missing pieces to much propaganda. the truth is the government killed MLK JR.Dr. William Francis Pepper, a friend to the late Dr. Martin Luther King and the attorney who represented King's accused murderer, James Earl Ray, in an April 1993 televised mock trial on HBO. After being arrested for King's 1968 murder, Ray was advised by his attorney, Percy Foreman, to plead guilty in a pre-trial hearing.

Ray followed Foreman's advice but three days later, Ray recanted the plea and fired Foreman. He then asked his judge for a trial but the judge refused, sentencing Ray to 99 years in prison.

The HBO special was the closest Ray ever got to defending himself in court. The mock jury found Ray not guilty of King's murder. Friend of MLK, Jr.: Government Conspiracy Killed Dr. King https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE2e0-EDkbc