What an impressive, monumental document. "King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis" must be the definitive documentary on Martin Luther King Jr.'s involvement in the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s. Editing together grainy archival footage--then-recent newsreel and TV reports, for the most part, it seems--in chronological order makes for a great mostly observational approach, covering the marches and protests, unabridged speeches, as well as some interviews conducted within the archival footage. This three-hours-plus monument is all the more amazing given the contemporary nature of the events covered. It hadn't quite been two years since King's murder when it was released for one day only in theatres. Going into relative obscurity thereafter, how wonderful that it has now become more widely available than ever. It's fully deserving of its Oscar nomination and inclusion on the U.S. National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
I also recently viewed the shorter government film "The March" (1964) about the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom that took a similar approach in its primary documentation, and it seems the best way to me to approach such subjects. Light on exposition and no talking heads--just putting the camera in the action. Sure, it may be a bit confusing at times--some mayhem from rioting white supremacists trying to get through police protection of King and marchers in Chicago is especially chaotic (the only time here, by the way, one sees police arresting or fighting racists instead of civil rights activists), but as the film is allowed to develop unimpeded, one is allowed to make sense of the scenes almost as though they were experiencing them live.
I also appreciate how violence is handled here. There's no shying away from police brutality and the attacks from the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists, but neither does the picture aestheticize any of it with slow-motion of some other tacky effect as seen in many dramas. The quick montages, often including a few frames of Klansmen to indicate the perpetrators, to transition to photographs and footage of such attacks and bombings as of freedom riders, churches and King's home, are effective.
The film follows some of the more significant events involving King from the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott to his assassination in Memphis (hence the "Montgomery to Memphis" subtitle). In between, there's the Birmingham campaign that includes King reading his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" over a montage of images illustrating his argument, his challenging call to "love your enemy" after the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing by the Klan that killed four girls, while his "I Have a Dream" speech naturally takes the picture to intermission, followed by his receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, voter registration efforts in Selma and the march, including Bloody Sunday, from there to Montgomery that led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Also commendable is that the film doesn't ignore features that some critics might (as they evidently did at the time) consider unrelated to the struggle against Jim Crow in the South: King's religious convictions and tolerance, the demonstrations for housing equality in Chicago, his protests against the Vietnam War, or that he was supporting the union of striking sanitation workers in Memphis. Detailed, too, is the importance of tactics, of King's nonviolent direct action or civil disobedience, as contrasted to more militant calls to action by civil rights leaders or that despite King's best efforts sometimes there was fighting back against the police and destruction of private property. The images from Memphis here of broken windows followed by Army tanks rolling down the street remains an all too familiar sight, as are those of police brutality and violent white supremacy.
Even the staged scenes directed by Sidney Lumet and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (both of whom had nothing to do with directing the documentary overall, as misstated elsewhere--the archival footage being assembled by Ely Landau and Richard Kaplan) of celebrities reading poems and other passages works rather well to pace the picture, besides featuring stars the likes of Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Charlton Heston, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, Anthony Quinn and Joanne Woodward being intended as a draw for audiences. Plus, they and other famous people can be spotted in some of the documentary footage. After a conversation on a plane during his travels across the country and his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech prophesizing his own premature demise, ending with images of the funeral procession mixed with Nina Simone singing "Why (The King of Love Is Dead)" is an appropriately moving sendoff, too. A great tribute to one of the most important and admirable figures in American history as well as a valuable document of his involvement in the civil rights movement.
I also recently viewed the shorter government film "The March" (1964) about the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom that took a similar approach in its primary documentation, and it seems the best way to me to approach such subjects. Light on exposition and no talking heads--just putting the camera in the action. Sure, it may be a bit confusing at times--some mayhem from rioting white supremacists trying to get through police protection of King and marchers in Chicago is especially chaotic (the only time here, by the way, one sees police arresting or fighting racists instead of civil rights activists), but as the film is allowed to develop unimpeded, one is allowed to make sense of the scenes almost as though they were experiencing them live.
I also appreciate how violence is handled here. There's no shying away from police brutality and the attacks from the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists, but neither does the picture aestheticize any of it with slow-motion of some other tacky effect as seen in many dramas. The quick montages, often including a few frames of Klansmen to indicate the perpetrators, to transition to photographs and footage of such attacks and bombings as of freedom riders, churches and King's home, are effective.
The film follows some of the more significant events involving King from the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott to his assassination in Memphis (hence the "Montgomery to Memphis" subtitle). In between, there's the Birmingham campaign that includes King reading his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" over a montage of images illustrating his argument, his challenging call to "love your enemy" after the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing by the Klan that killed four girls, while his "I Have a Dream" speech naturally takes the picture to intermission, followed by his receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, voter registration efforts in Selma and the march, including Bloody Sunday, from there to Montgomery that led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Also commendable is that the film doesn't ignore features that some critics might (as they evidently did at the time) consider unrelated to the struggle against Jim Crow in the South: King's religious convictions and tolerance, the demonstrations for housing equality in Chicago, his protests against the Vietnam War, or that he was supporting the union of striking sanitation workers in Memphis. Detailed, too, is the importance of tactics, of King's nonviolent direct action or civil disobedience, as contrasted to more militant calls to action by civil rights leaders or that despite King's best efforts sometimes there was fighting back against the police and destruction of private property. The images from Memphis here of broken windows followed by Army tanks rolling down the street remains an all too familiar sight, as are those of police brutality and violent white supremacy.
Even the staged scenes directed by Sidney Lumet and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (both of whom had nothing to do with directing the documentary overall, as misstated elsewhere--the archival footage being assembled by Ely Landau and Richard Kaplan) of celebrities reading poems and other passages works rather well to pace the picture, besides featuring stars the likes of Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Charlton Heston, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, Anthony Quinn and Joanne Woodward being intended as a draw for audiences. Plus, they and other famous people can be spotted in some of the documentary footage. After a conversation on a plane during his travels across the country and his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech prophesizing his own premature demise, ending with images of the funeral procession mixed with Nina Simone singing "Why (The King of Love Is Dead)" is an appropriately moving sendoff, too. A great tribute to one of the most important and admirable figures in American history as well as a valuable document of his involvement in the civil rights movement.