By Hollywood Hernandez
Entertainment Reporter
MLK/FBI is a powerful documentary by director Sam Pollard, who co-directed 4 Little Girls with Spike Lee in 1997. The movie is not so much about the historic accomplishments of Dr. King, but rather about the war that was waged by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI against MLK. Hoover, who once called King “the most dangerous Negro in America,” put together a special team of G-men whose mission was to find embarrassing information about King’s personal life to discredit him as a civil rights leader.
The movie is based on recently-released information on King’s surveillance that was recently declassified. The movie takes us back to the darkest days in the history of the FBI when King was harassed and illegally spied on by the organization. It also raises questions about the FBI’s knowledge of King’s assassination attempt. If a whole team of agents was spying on King why anything wasn’t done to stop, or at least warn, King about the plot on his life?
The movie is brilliantly shot using voice overs of historical figures, like Andrew Young, without ever breaking from the archival footage of Dr. King. It gives you the feeling that you were actually there witnessing history as it unfolded. MLK/FBI uses the newly-released information to give a true picture of one of the greatest civil right champions in American history that, with all of his flaws, fought for equality. He risked his own life with a nonviolent movement that in the end took his life.
MLK/FBI is available on Prime Video just in time for the MLK Holiday. On my “Hollywood Popcorn Scale, ” I rate this movie a JUMBO.
