MLK/FBI Movie Review

I won’t lie. ‘MLK/FBI’ is going to anger you but intrigue you all the same.
It’s based on the book, ‘The FBI & MLK Jr.: From ‘Solo’ to Memphis’ by David J. Garrow, who also speaks in the film. James Comey is interviewed and sums things up by saying that humans are ‘best at convincing themselves of their own righteousness,’ going on to say that the extreme amount of surveillance put on Dr. King ‘represents the darkest part of the Bureau’s history.’

Through interviews with historians and authors, the film reveals newly discovered and declassified FBI documents and intelligence, as well as showing restored footage of what Hoover’s FBI did. They not only put King under the microscope but all African Americans in this country, with particular attention given to anyone who appeared to be an activist. Laura Tomaselli’s edit provides us with a look into years long gone, using television shows, movie clips, and interviews to help you better understand the times. To put it bluntly, Black masculinity worried what finally became a ‘surveillance state’ to control it.

You can see this film as a massive civics lesson, and take from it that though we profess to be progressive in this country, we very much stagnate with specific topics, race being the largest. I can’t imagine what Martin Luther King Jr. would think of the world today. He fought for and won Civil Rights so long ago, yet here we are, still not equals in the eyes of the police and many American citizens. If one wants to ignore those waving a flag of hate and reciting past racist chants, this makes it nearly impossible to do. It brings current racism to the forefront by exposing how we got here.
‘MLK/FBI’ focuses on the harassment of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who received, unjustly, the ire of J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI from 1924 to 1972, for meeting racists hatred with love. After King’s march on Washington, which called for national and international civil rights, the FBI was concerned with his power to mobilize the people. Hoover, personally, was afraid of a ‘black messiah’ and labeled King from then on as the ‘most dangerous negro in the nation.’ His march and when King targeted busing by saying it was ‘both legally and sociologically invalid,’ Hoover got very nervous. It’s found that the goal then was to ‘use every resource at their disposal to destroy him.’

No bar was too low. The FBI started wiretapping everyone from King’s friends to the hotels where he stayed. Hoover was pleased when he ferrets out that the reverend, who shared a church with his father, had girlfriends, hoping his low morals would lose him support. Hoover, hiding who he indeed was and with interest in King’s sexuality growing, clung to clean, white, Christian beliefs. He expected the same decency of his G-Men, a profile King couldn’t fit. He did eventually used some of the recordings against King, sending them to his wife, Coretta. That didn’t work out as planned.

The documentary, directed by Emmy® Award-winner and Oscar®-nominee Sam Pollard, tells us that even more of what was going on to King, in fact, all of the surveillance on him, will be brought to light in 2027. Some in the documentary say that it shouldn’t come out; most would agree that it wouldn’t change King’s legacy no matter what it reveals. King spoke to a known Communist. He talked to President Johnson, too. They had an amicable relationship, as a matter of fact. Neither changes who King was nor what he accomplished.

Knowing what has happened in recent years, with the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, to name a few, the film will be seen as that much more significant and telling. And the timing of its release, less than two weeks after a Confederate flag entered our country’s Capitol building for the first time ever, during an insurrection, no less, emphasizes Pollard’s point that this country still has a long way to go. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in healing the nation. He was gunned down for the same reason four years later. Interestingly, the film suggests that James Earl Ray may not have been the only one involved in King’s death. Knowing who was in control at the time, I wouldn’t doubt the FBI had a hand in his demise. See ‘MLK/FBI’ to find out why.

*In Phoenix, this will be playing at Harkins Shea 14 and everywhere on VOD.

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DISTRIBUTOR: IFC Films