On K List of Movie Reviews
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King (1978)
Rate:
9
Viewed:
7/21
7/21:
One of the strangest things I've noticed in regard to Martin Luther King, Jr., is everybody knows who he was, but
most don't have any idea of what he did specifically or the events he was involved with.
A Nielsen ratings disaster compared to Roots (13.8 versus 44.9), King does an outstanding
job of summarizing them all in a five-hour biopic. On top of it is the exceptional performance by Paul Winfield which is the
be-all and end-all when it comes to anyone wanting to play Martin Luther King, Jr. His recitation of King's speeches is stirring.
However, one problem I have with the movie is the complete lack of mention about King's infidelities although it did reveal
he was a smoker which was something almost nobody knew. By now, it's a well-known fact that he had numerous
affairs and cheated on his wife regularly.
Another is King's meeting with Malcolm X at some hotel in Chicago. It's unlikely they came together to have a
talk behind the scenes because of their completely different philosophies that's much like the rivalry between W. E. B. Du Bois
and Booker T. Washington. The fact is that they only met once while waiting for a press conference in Washington, D.C.,
on March 26, 1964.
At least, King sets the story straight on a few things. JFK and RFK were never true supporters of what Martin Luther
King, Jr., was doing as they, being the politicians as they were, often thought about courting white southern voters for
the upcoming presidential election. They also authorized J. Edgar Hoover to wiretap him. Hence, it was LBJ who finally got
the Civil Rights Act passed. The whole story as presented in Mississippi Burning
is pure fiction; the FBI didn't care about what was happening down there.
There's a famous picture of Jesse Jackson with Martin Luther King, Jr., on the balcony at the Lorraine Motel, but it was
taken on April 3, 1968. He wasn't exactly there when King was assassinated on the 5th but rather ran away and hid
behind an above-ground swimming pool. Shortly later, Jackson went to the balcony to soak his shirt with some of King's blood
and falsely claimed afterwards in public that he died in his hands.
The truth is King didn't get along with Jesse Jackson, who entered the picture late two years prior, and mistrusted
him from the start. The latter attended a theological school but was failing so badly that he dropped out after six months.
Then, Jackson adopted the title of "Reverend" without ever earning it. Since then, he has made his living by shaking
down corporations through race-based threats (called "greenmail") with the help of a violent Chicago street
gang called Blackstone Rangers.
One nice thing about King is the sight of young faces. The cast includes Ernie Hudson, Howard E. Rollins, Jr., Steven
Hill, and Al Freeman, Jr. All of four King's children appear, and one of them is Yolanda who plays Rosa Parks. Cicely Tyson
may be a decent choice for King's wife, but she comes off as weak and is heavily doused in light black makeup
which is distracting.
All in all, thanks to Paul Winfield's performance, King is a remarkable achievement by going to the core of Martin
Luther King, Jr.'s message.