IMDb RATING
7.0/10
1.8K
YOUR RATING
Based on newly declassified files, Sam Pollard's resonant film explores the US government's surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr.Based on newly declassified files, Sam Pollard's resonant film explores the US government's surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr.Based on newly declassified files, Sam Pollard's resonant film explores the US government's surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Awards
- 6 wins & 17 nominations
Martin Luther King
- Self
- (archive footage)
J. Edgar Hoover
- Self - FBI Director
- (archive footage)
David Garrow
- Self - Author, Bearing the Cross
- (as David J. Garrow)
Clarence B. Jones
- Self - Attorney, Speechwriter for Martin Luther King, Jr
- (as Clarence Jones)
H. Rap Brown
- Self - Civil Rights Activist
- (archive footage)
Arthur Goldberg
- Self - Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.
- (archive footage)
Merv Griffin
- Self - TV Host
- (archive footage)
Lyndon B. Johnson
- Self - 36th President of the United States
- (archive footage)
Kenneth Keating
- Self - U.S. Senator from New York
- (archive footage)
John F. Kennedy
- Self - 35th President of the United States
- (archive footage)
Robert F. Kennedy
- Self - Former United States Attorney General
- (archive footage)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOfficially released on what would have been the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 92nd birthday.
- Quotes
Self - Author, Bearing the Cross: The FBI was not a renegade agency. It was fundamentally a part, a core part of the existing mainstream American political order.
- ConnectionsFeatures I Was a Communist for the F.B.I. (1951)
Featured review
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." MLK
It's shocking to hear in the eye-opening documentary MLK/FBI William Sullivan, the FBI's director of domestic intelligence, encourage Martin Luther King, Jr. to commit suicide. The theme of the doc is that the agency, under J Edgar Hoover's direction, from 1955.was dedicated to bringing down King and the Civil Rights Movement.
Although the animosity was known even in the 60's, the doc does a credible job showing this aggressiveness was a part of the mid-century paranoia dominated by the fear of communism and perhaps mirrored it. In this case, the agency, like Joe McCarthy, had little evidence of the subjects' undemocratic tactics but probably was motivated more by the fear of losing influence to liberal protestors or lonely anarchists.
Mixing archival footage of King parading and snippets from his famous speeches, director Sam Pollard gives a fluid narrative to otherwise discursive material. To his credit, talking heads are at a minimum as he emphasizes the growing concern that King was being targeted to go down.
That plot was notoriously supported by ample evidence of King's philandering, mainly in hours of tapes with his women, not his wife, from wiretapping to photos. The actual auditory evidence will be released in 2027, and the ballyhoo will probably be disappointing because he did his good while he was doing his bad, and the good he did for civil rights and Black people far outweighs infidelities to his estimable wife and puritanical white folk.
MLK/FBI could have profited from discussion of his influence and flaws and how the latter might have been better served by expert analysis about their importance. That he was an appetitive man, at least in regards to women, was known before this documentary; that he was a powerful player in the freedom of his own people and other repressed minorities, will redound through history.
MLK/FBI will remind you in important evidence that like JFK, MLK was destined to change a nation and lose a young life in return. I never tire of remembering true heroes.
It's shocking to hear in the eye-opening documentary MLK/FBI William Sullivan, the FBI's director of domestic intelligence, encourage Martin Luther King, Jr. to commit suicide. The theme of the doc is that the agency, under J Edgar Hoover's direction, from 1955.was dedicated to bringing down King and the Civil Rights Movement.
Although the animosity was known even in the 60's, the doc does a credible job showing this aggressiveness was a part of the mid-century paranoia dominated by the fear of communism and perhaps mirrored it. In this case, the agency, like Joe McCarthy, had little evidence of the subjects' undemocratic tactics but probably was motivated more by the fear of losing influence to liberal protestors or lonely anarchists.
Mixing archival footage of King parading and snippets from his famous speeches, director Sam Pollard gives a fluid narrative to otherwise discursive material. To his credit, talking heads are at a minimum as he emphasizes the growing concern that King was being targeted to go down.
That plot was notoriously supported by ample evidence of King's philandering, mainly in hours of tapes with his women, not his wife, from wiretapping to photos. The actual auditory evidence will be released in 2027, and the ballyhoo will probably be disappointing because he did his good while he was doing his bad, and the good he did for civil rights and Black people far outweighs infidelities to his estimable wife and puritanical white folk.
MLK/FBI could have profited from discussion of his influence and flaws and how the latter might have been better served by expert analysis about their importance. That he was an appetitive man, at least in regards to women, was known before this documentary; that he was a powerful player in the freedom of his own people and other repressed minorities, will redound through history.
MLK/FBI will remind you in important evidence that like JFK, MLK was destined to change a nation and lose a young life in return. I never tire of remembering true heroes.
- JohnDeSando
- Jan 15, 2021
- Permalink
- How long is MLK/FBI?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $45,200
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $21,603
- Jan 17, 2021
- Gross worldwide
- $91,833
- Runtime1 hour 44 minutes
- Color
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