Release Details

Title: King

Release Date: 12/12/2006

Label/Distributor: York

Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Retail Price: $24.99

Genre: Action & Adventure

Cast: King

DVD Video Options: Color, NTSC

DVD Audio Options: English, Dubbed

UPC Code: 750723138725


Tipsheet Reviews

King

1/13/2005

Color, NR, 271 min. plus supplements, mono, fullscreen

DVD $19.98

Street: Jan. 18

First Run: NBC, Feb. 1978

MGM

King, a solid mini-series about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King (portrayed by Paul Winfield), makes its DVD debut as a two-disc set just in time for Black History Month in February. Produced by Greg Carson, the headlining bonus is the conversation between singer and co-star Tony Bennett and writer/director Abby Mann as they reflect on Bennett's involvement with the movie and the film's importance to the Civil Rights movement, which in 1978, had lost some of its momentum. The conversation is a two-camera job that cuts to and from Bennett and Mann for 19 minutes as they discuss the turbulent '60s in the most earnest of terms. There are a lot of inside and occasionally obscure references, and the results often are quite dry. Better is the 20-minute "The Struggle," which covers much of the same material but with separate talking head interviews with actor Ossie Davis, who played MLK Sr., and the popular Bishop Kenneth C. Ulmer. (King's speeches, reenacted by Winfield, are used to illustrate their recollections.) Ulmer boils down the burning need for the Civil Rights movement with a touching, troubling anecdote about a childhood incident. Davis and Ulmer also are featured in "The Civil Rights Movement" featurette, which is a bit redundant but enlightening nonetheless. Mann is the centerpiece of the 15-minute "making-of" segment, in which we learn the debuting director was hot because of his success as the creator of Kojak. So King has Telly Savalas to thank for the greenlight.

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