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DVD Release Date: January 14, 2003
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This absorbing video is chock-full of interviews and footage of Martin Luther King Jr., and a well-rounded picture of the civil-rights movement, beginning with a conversation with Coretta Scott King, Dr. King's wife, describing how her husband's mission has guided how she lives her life today. Throughout the video are more conversations with Coretta and other friends and colleagues of Dr. King including Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory, Edward Kennedy, Bill Cosby, Andrew Young, Joan Baez, former President Jimmy Carter, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In between the interviews are pockets of historical facts, beginning with how Dr. King developed his views to become, as Dick Gregory describes him, "a giant of a man." It then goes through all the major civil-rights landmarks from the establishment of the Civil Rights Act in 1957 to the guaranteeing of the right for African-Americans to vote in 1964.
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Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will live long in our collective memory as a symbol of peaceful resistance to injustice. But, of course, he was more than a symbol--he was a man. Biography: Martin Luther King Jr. uses striking images and first-class research to explore both sides of this tragic hero. It tells us how his comfortable upbringing made him resistant at first to his role as leader of the civil rights movement, but also how he ultimately came to terms with it and even accepted the inevitability of his martyrdom. Documentary footage of his brilliant speeches and interviews with friends and associates make for a penetrating look at the inspirations and frustrations that made up this great man's life. --Rob Lightner
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One of the greatest and most memorable moments in the civil rights movement occurred when 200,000 people marched on Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. Not only was the gathering of so many united people extraordinary, but that day Martin Luther King Jr. stood before the marchers and delivered his most eloquent and inspiring speech. This video offers the "I Have a Dream" speech in its entirety, as well as footage of the opposition the protesters faced, such as the fire hoses the police in Alabama used to disperse the crowds. The narrator explains that the hoses shot 700 pounds of pressure, enough to strip the bark off a tree. However, the grimness of this era is not the only focus in this video. Dr. King had so much hope and faith in the success of the civil rights movement, and the greatest demonstration of this is in the famous speech. He uses modern metaphors and poetry to get his message out clearly, as when he describes the capitol as having given blacks a check marked "insufficient funds," but he reminds us that they will refuse to believe the bank of justice is bankrupt, that they will cash their check for riches of freedom and security of justice. Throughout the speech he emphasizes his mission: nonviolence as a method of overcoming ("Soul force against militant force") and the importance of walking together as a unified group, and never walking alone.
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Much of this PBS documentary was filmed on the first federal holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr., when a number of his former associates as well as notable admirers gathered in Atlanta to commemorate his life. The interviews with former President Jimmy Carter, Congressman John Lewis, Bill Cosby, Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory, Joan Baez, and Bishop Desmond Tutu are moving, but they are no match for the oratory of Dr. King himself. Thankfully, In Remembrance of Martin also makes use of a great amount of archival material, which includes news footage of Dr. King in the years when he was rising to the forefront of the civil rights movement. Dr. King is seen being fingerprinted after his arrest during the Montgomery bus boycott, making his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, and accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. In addition to being a tribute to Dr. King and his legacy, the inclusion of news films of Klan rallies and violent scenes of police using fire hoses and clubs on peaceful demonstrators makes this video an introduction to the drama and passion of the entire civil rights movement. --Robert J. McNamara
-from Amazon.com website