Today’s movie is a biographical drama with a scene that happens on May 3. Watch it tonight and enjoy.
KING
In 1952 Martin Luther King, Jr. meets and romances Coretta Scott, even though his father doesn’t approve. He becomes a Baptist minister and they move to Montgomery Alabama. When Rosa Parks refuses to go to the back of the bus, he is drafted to lead the resistance. His house is bombed and his supporters suffer police harassment, but they finally win. King becomes nationally known, but gets stabbed in Harlem. He resigns from the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery. King is arrested on trumped up charges in Georgia and sentenced to the chain gang, but is released through intervention by the Kennedys. However, his initial meeting with the Kennedys doesn’t go well. When King returns to Montgomery Federal marshals have to protect him. He criticizes the FBI, saying it does nothing about racial violence, earning him the enmity of J. Edgar Hoover. King goes to desegregate Birmingham, where he is assaulted in the pulpit and peaceful demonstrations are broken up by the police using fire hoses on May 3, 1963. [Part 2 14:55 to 20:14] After many marches the city finally desegregates. The 16th Street church bombing occurs. Hoover orders an investigation of King. The March on Washington occurs and King gives his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. He wins the Nobel Peace Prize and leads the Selma to Montgomery march. King meets with Malcolm X and tries to work with Mayor Daley in Chicago. When he speaks out against the Vietnam War the FBI starts a smear campaign. Coretta stays with him in spite of his affairs. King is criticized by Andrew Young. When two Memphis garbage workers are killed he goes there and leads a march in support of a strike that turns into a riot caused by agitators from the FBI. King is assassinated.
A good biopic of a great but still flawed man. Tries to show the public and the private face. Interesting film in that a number of celebrities play themselves in the movie.
Cradle of Freedom by Frye Gaillard (University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, Ala., 2004) at pages 147-149 gives this date
Producer - Paul Maslansky
Director - Abby Mann
Screenplay - Abby Mann
Awards - The film won the Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore). It was also nominated for the Outstanding Achievement in Makeup; Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Davis); Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series; Outstanding Film Editing in a Drama Series; Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series (Winfield); Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series (Tyson); Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series Emmys.
Running Time - 5 hours
Released - February 12, 1978
Starring -
Paul Winfield as Martin Luther King, Jr.
Cicely Tyson as Coretta Scott King
Tony Bennett as Himself
Roscoe Lee Browne as Phillip Harrison
Lonny Chapman as Chief Frank Holloman
Ossie Davis as Martin Luther King, Sr.
Cliff DeYoung as Robert F. Kennedy
Al Freeman, Jr. as Damon Lockwood
Clu Gulager as William C. Sullivan
Steven Hill as Stanley Levison
William Jordan as John F. Kennedy
Warren J. Kemmerling as Lyndon B. Johnson
Lincoln Kilpatrick as Jerry Waring
Kenneth McMillan as Bull Connor
Howard E. Rollins, Jr. as Andrew Young
Dolph Sweet as J. Edgar Hoover
Dick Anthony Williams as Malcolm X
Art Evans as Alfred Daniel Williams King
Frances Foster as Alberta Williams King
Tony Holmes as Martin Luther King III
Felecia Hunter as Yolanda King
Roger Robinson as Fred Shuttlesworth
Ernie Lee Banks as Ralph Abernathy
Donzaleigh Abernathy as Herself
Alveda King as Babysitter
Julian Bond as Himself
Ramsey Clark as Himself
Christine King Farris as Ferris Church Soloist
Maynard Jackson as Wallace Whitmore
Bernice King –as Student
Dexter Scott King as Student #2
Martin Luther King III as Rev. Briggs
Yolanda King as Rosa Parks
Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015.
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