"So that's all it was - twelve years. Twelve years to change what had existed for centuries. Twelve years to go from Montgomery to relationships with presidents, to challenge them, sometimes to gain their friendship and then their hatred, to have your house bombed, to be stabbed, to be arrested more than 120 times. Would we have done it again if we knew what it would cost?" - Cicely Tyson as Coretta Scott King
King DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
In 1968, two Memphis sanitation workers were crushed to death in a hydraulic garbage truck. They were seeking shelter from a rainstorm because, at the time, African-Americans were not allowed inside the sanitation company's garage on rainy days. While their white coworkers remained dry in the garage, these two workers huddled in the back of the garbage truck until a short circuit caused the vehicle's crushing mechanism to engage. Against the better judgment of his advisor, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., decided to participate in the ensuing strike by African-American sanitation workers. When a protest led by Dr. King turned violent, his ability to effectuate peaceful change was called into question.
Written and directed by Abby Mann (Judgment at Nuremberg), the 1978 docudrama King begins with this incident. With Dr. King (Paul Winfield, Sounder) discouraged by the tragic turn of events in Memphis, his wife, Coretta (Cicely Tyson, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman) reflects on how her husband developed from the cocksure college student she met on a blind date in 1952 to a Nobel Peace Prize-winning crusader for equality. In the process, this three-part miniseries recreates some of the most important events in the struggle of civil rights: the Montgomery bus strike (incited by Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat), the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Birmingham's Bull Conner turning fire hoses and snarling dogs on young children, Freedom Rides, the March on Washington.
King has a deliberate pace that may seem slow to modern audiences. Because it covers so much territory, it can be a bit disjointed, with little flow between scenes. Still, once viewers become accustomed to these stylistic quirks, they will discover an engrossing miniseries that is exhaustive in its presentation of Dr. King's life and achievements. The miniseries is respectful, but not reverent - it even obliquely refers to the rumors of infidelity that plagued King.
The miniseries is filled to the brim with terrific performers. Winfield bears only a passing resemblance to Dr. King, nor does he quite possess King's familiar vocal pattern. Still, he manages to capture the essence of King: strong, charismatic, and decidedly human. Tyson isn't given much to do, but she enchants whenever she is onscreen. Ossie Davis (The Cosby Show) also delivers a fiery performance as Martin Luther King, Sr. They are backed by a supporting cast that is practically a who's who of high quality (if little-known) supporting actors, including Roscoe Lee Browne, Lonny Chapman, Cliff De Young (Relativity), Art Evans, Al Freeman, Jr. (Roots: The Next Generations), Clu Gulager (The Virginian), Steven Hill (Law & Order), William Jordan (Project U.F.O.), Warren Kemmerling, Lincoln Kilpatrick (Frank's Place), Kenneth McMillan (Rhoda), Howard Rollins (TV's In the Heat of the Night), David Spielberg (From Here to Eternity), Dolph Sweet (Gimme a Break), and Dick Anthony Williams (Homefront). Actual members of the King family also show up in cameo appearances, as does singer Tony Bennett (in a blink-and-you-miss-him appearance as himself).
Dr. King returned to Memphis for another rally in support of the sanitation strike shortly after that violent 1968 protest. He was assassinated as he left his room at the Lorraine Motel to attend that march. As King so effectively points out, he achieved more in his twelve years as an activist than most politicians and leaders can hope to do in entire lifetimes.
King's three installments are divided onto two DVDs: parts one and two are found on the first disc, part three on the second disc. The discs are housed in a standard keepcase that includes an interior swinging arm for the second disc. The discs are imprinted with stills of Winfield and Tyson.
The menus are simple and functional. Viewers can play the individual installments or jump to a specific scene.
