MLK: The Assassination Tapes (Smithsonian Channel/Inception DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Main Program: B

 

 

In one of the most interesting historical offerings of the year, The Smithsonian Channel’s MLK: The Assassination Tapes offers 46 intense minutes of footage, including rare and rarely seen footage (especially of Memphis) as a labor strike against a city who will not negotiate with a local union causes trash to pile up and tensions to mount.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. decided to join labor to help them, but few knew it would be his final days.

 

Including his great “mountaintop” speech, this is a powerful realization of his final days with detail not enough people know, of the full story of what the various situations were that he eventually got involved in and how this affected the whole country permanently.  Even knowing the history I know and how much I have seen on this subject, there is footage here I had not even seen before and the result is one of the most important must-see documentaries to hit DVD this year.  Very impressive, anyone serious about history should consider this a must-see.

 

The letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image looks surprisingly good when non-anamorphic presentations otherwise tend to be soft.  Newer HD footage is not bad, stills are fine, but the highlight tends to be the 16mm footage, especially that in full color that looks good for its age (including news footage) that is all well edited throughout.  The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo includes more than its share of archival monophonic audio, but is in fine shape for the most part.  There are no extras.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo