DVD Release: King: A Filmed Record…Montgomery to Memphis

DVD Release Date: Jan. 15, 2013
Price: 2-Disc DVD $34.95
Studio: Kino


King: A Filmed Record...Montgomery to Memphis movie sceneKing: A Filmed Record…from Montgomery to Memphis is the landmark 1970 documentary film that chronicles the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement in Montgomery to the triumph on the Lincoln Memorial steps to King’s tragic assassination in Memphis in 1968.

Originally screened in theaters for only a single night in 1970, the three-hour King: A Filmed Record has occasionally been circulated since then in a version that was shortened by an hour. The complete version has been newly restored by the Library of Congress in association with Richard Kaplan and utilizes elements from New York’s Museum of Modern. It’s been mastered in HD from the 35mm preservation negative.

Conceived and produced by Ely Landau, the unrated film features remarkable newsreel and archival footage of King’s speeches, protests and arrests, interespersed with scenes of many high-profile supporters and opponents to his cause. Also featured are a series of testimonials and dramatic readings by some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Harry Belafonte, Charlton Heston (Ben-Hur), James Earl Jones (End of the Road), Paul Newman (The Hustler), Joanne Woodward (WUSA), Burt Lancaster (Twlight’s Last Gleaming), Anthony Quinn (Lawrence of Arabia), Walter Matthau (Who’s Got The Action?), Sidney Poitier (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?) and Ben Gazzara (Anatomy of a Murder). The guest appearances were directed and filmed by the noted filmmakers Sidney Lumet (Network) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve).

Kudos to Kino for issuing the complete version of this fine, historical document that, not surprisingly, was admitted to the National Film Registry in 1999.

 

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.