Director Sam Pollard wanted to narrow the voices and let the archival material tell the story in his new Documentary Film MLK/FBI. Pollard a close collaborator with Spike Lee on several films including Mo' Better Blues, Clockers, and Bamboozled limited the main speakers to 5. Two Historians, A FBI agent, two close friends of the Reverend,and a special appearance by James Comey. From 1963 Until his asssassination in 1968 the FBI conducted surveillance mainly by way of wiretapping on Martin Luther King Jr. The Reverand first came to the attention of the FBI after leading a successful 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. Now seeing the mobilization that he was able to muster in the summer of 1963 Hoover felt active measures were required. He and his deputy director William C. Sullivan who called King "the most dangerous Negro in the future of this nation" used the threat of communism as the path to secure the authorization.
Stanley Levinson an inner circle advisor for King had well-known ties to the communist party. Levinson was both a lawyer and a CPA plus they spun the notion that the black population would be more susceptible to communism. King argued the opposite finding it to be a wonder that more did not given the plight of African- Americans in the country. Hoover brought the communist leanings of Levinson to JFK who encouraged King to distance himself from Levison. King did not allowing Attorney General Bobby Kennedy to grant the first series of wiretaps on King in 1963. They tapped the offices of the SCLC , King's home, and his close friend and speechwriter Clarence Jones who serves as one of the voices for the film. It was on the wiretap at Jones' home that the FBI learn that King was not always faithful to his wife and took the focus of the surveillance in a different direction.
Historian Beverly Gage gives the FBI point of view that was the prevailing one on the day. The FBI under Hoovers 48 year reign carefully crafted their image as America's protectors bringing the best and brightest to the agency. There was the look of a G-Man tall and athletic that ranged from Fraternity boy to ex Football player. Plus a patriotic public campaign started by Hoover in the late twenties, that included newsreels and portrayals on film then the post war communist threat feed the beast. King biographer and author David Garrow gives a matter of fact comment noting that the FBI was not acting off-book. They were part of the political establishment and their actions were signed off both by Bobby Kennedy and later Lyndon Johnston. Both men were friendly with King but not disavowing Livingston led the former and a stong anti-Vietnam stance guided the latter to see things the F.B.I.'s way.
MLK/FBI explores a leading goverment agency obsession boarding on paranoia to squash a threat that in their view tcould affect American society as a whole and more to the point themselves. Hoover reached the pinnacle of outrage when King was awarded the Nobel Prize. He publically labeled King the most notorious liar in the U.S. and launch a plan by Deputy director Sullivan to link King to a hotel rape. The plan was only called off due to King's April 4, 1968 death. The FBI saw themselves as standing up for white Christian ideals a position that was supported by the man on the street. Director Pollard presents the information clearly ad plainly and given the current relationship between minorities and authorities timely as well.
***1/2 Out of 4.
MLK/FBI | Sam Pollard | U.S.A. | 2020 | 104 Minutes.
Tags: MLK, Montogomery Bus Boycott, Baptist Preacher, SCLC, March on Washington, FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, Wiretaps, Imformants, Audultery, Survellance, Reel to Reel, Tapes, Nobel Peace Prize, Annoymus Letter, Assassination.
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