King (1978 Mini-series)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Episodes: B
In recent years, there has been revisionist thinking on
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that has turned him into a memory, something instead
of the someone that he was. Even his
national birthday holiday has not gone far enough to remind all of what he
achieved. Some in the African-American
community are now thinking of him as a failure whose passive philosophy did
more harm than good and that the Malcolm X model was at least as
important. Revisionists on the Right
have gotten there way to call him a Communist womanizer troublemaker who ruined
America and that is why “we needed” Ronald Reagan. That is why I am so happy Abby Mann’s 1978 King TV
mini-series has arrived on DVD.
Paul Winfield, in one of the greatest performances of his
career, plays the title role with conviction to the point you forget you are
watching him. Winfield recently passed
away, one of Hollywood’s great character actors, who could also do strong lead
work like this. That this is
surprisingly uncompromising in the way people talk (i.e., the “N” word is used
by everyone, including King himself in context to what is going on) and his
past romances are touched upon early, shows just how ambitious this project
was. It succeeds well and has actually
appreciated in value after all these years.
Filmways produced it when they were at their peak.
Though it is impossible to end this in any satisfactory
way, the series is still strong and it has a huge cast, though names like
Roscoe Lee Browne and Dolph Sweet are already great actors sadly lost to a new
generation. Cicely Tyson is Mrs. King
and Ossie Davis is King’s father. This
is a series that was built to last and if you wonder outside of criticism and
revision of the man why no motion picture or TV project has not been made
lately on King, you will see why when you see Mann’s King. It is tough to compete against a program
this good.
The full frame 1.33 X 1 image is from a clean new print,
as shot by one of the best cinematographers of the era, Michael Chapman. He first lensed the 1973 Jack Nicholson
classic The Last Detail, then went on to shoot Philip Kaufmann’s White
Dawn (1974), Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Martin Ritt’s The
Front (both 1976), so Chapman was in top form when he took on this
mini-series. Later, he continued back
in feature films with more Scorsese classics (Last Waltz, Raging Bull),
Scorsese short classics (American Boy and Music Video for Michael
Jackson’s Bad), underrated Kaufmann work (the 1978 remake of Invasion
Of The Body Snatchers, The Wanderers), Paul Schrader’s
still-impressive Hardcore (1979), plus memorable genre films in the
1980s and 1990s like Dead men Don’t Wear Plaid, The Lost Boys, Shoot
To Kill, Scrooged and the Harrison Ford version of The Fugitive. This mini-series has that caliber of talent
at its best bringing the ambitious Abby Mann teleplay vividly alive and few
such series in the last twenty years have looked as good. Most of it is in color, but the black and
white was shot when real black and white stock still existed, so that is yet
another plus.
The sound has been cleaned up as much as possible and is
presented here in Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono.
Billy Goldenberg’s score is solid, dramatic TV scoring at its best,
minimal and not showy. It is only so
noticeable because it fits in so well.
This is also more proof that the TV productions shot on film tend to
have the best archival sound quality.
Extras include Tony Bennett and Abby Mann reflecting on the man, the
time and the program (18 minutes), a 15+ minutes Making Of program and
two new documentaries on with Ossie Davis on King and Civil Rights that updates
and rounds off this DVD set very nicely.
- Nicholas Sheffo
