Movie Review - MLK/FBI

From 1956 to 1971, the Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI conducted surveillance of political organizations in the United States for the purpose of discrediting or disrupting them. These actions were taken under its Counter Intelligence Program or COINTELPRO. The recent Oscar-winning film Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) documented one such operation of the FBI using COINTELPRO on the Black Panther Party and specifically one of its leaders, Fred Hampton. Based on documents that have been released detailing the FBI's activities, which support the claims, many believe the FBI facilitated the assassination of Hampton in 1969, as well as other illegal things against American citizens. A lot of the FBI's activities were also believed to be the result of racism and right-wing extremism within the Bureau.

The FBI targeted various people under COINTELPRO. The most high-profile was likely Martin Luther King Jr. In the years leading up to King's death, the FBI wiretapped his phones and put secret recording devices in the hotel rooms that King stayed as he traveled the country. The FBI had the audio from these wiretaps and recording devices on numerous tapes. It's through these tapes that it was revealed that King was having various adulterous affairs. It was through these tapes that it was revealed that he was cheating on his wife and on multiple occasions. Oscar-nominee Sam Pollard shows the steps leading up to the FBI making these tapes, what they did with them or what they tried to do and King's reaction to it, as well as the lingering questions regarding the tapes.

Pollard conducted interviews with Andrew Young, a friend and confidant to Dr. King. He also interviewed David Garrow, a biographer who wrote a book about Dr. King, along with Donna Murch, a professor, Beverly Gage, a Yale historian, and James Comey, the former FBI director under Presidents Obama and Trump. Strangely though, Pollard doesn't show you the faces of these interviews until the very end of the documentary. Through most of it, we only hear their voices. Pollard doesn't even give you the titles or credentials of these people until the very end. Unless you're already familiar with who these people are, it might be disconcerting to hear these people talk about a subject without knowing the context of why they're specifically talking about it. I suppose Pollard does so as a way of putting us in the shoes of the FBI agents who were wiretapping King and listening to disembodied voices, trying to discern who they are and what the context is.

The rest of the film is all archive footage, mostly black-and-white scenes of the major events in King's life. We see footage of the 1956 Montgomery bus boycott. We see footage of the 1963 March on Washington and his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. We see footage of President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with King in attendance. We see footage of King getting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. We see footage of his other famous Riverside Church speech in 1967. Along the way, we get a sense of perhaps resentment or jealousy on the part of those in the FBI, specifically the head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover. It's suggested that Hoover resented and was jealous of King's success and popularity.

At the same time, we also get an idea of the psycho-sexual issues at play. Pollard's film doesn't delve into the controversies surrounding Hoover's possible homosexuality. However, we get how King was perceived, at least within the FBI, as a sexual deviant. A lot of this stems from broader, racial ideas regarding Black sexuality, particularly Black male sexuality, and how the sexuality of Black men was perceived as something of a threat. It's a gross stereotype.

However, Pollard's film misses a major question and he also misses a major conclusion. The question that his film never asks is why did the FBI ultimately fail to discredit or disrupt Martin Luther King Jr.? According to Pollard's film, the FBI sent tapes of King's affairs to the press, to church leaders and to King's wife herself. Reportedly, King worried his affairs would make the news and the national news. Yet, based on what we see or rather not see in this documentary, King's adultery never made the national news. An overt statement of King's extramarital affairs came in Garrow's book in 1986. By that point, Martin Luther King Jr. Day had already become a federal holiday in 1983. The question is why? Why didn't King's affairs become more of a thing while he was alive? Why did the FBI fail in its efforts to destroy King and how? There's some suggestion that the tapes had an issue of authentication and corroboration where it couldn't be definitely proven that King was who was heard in the audio, but, based on testimonies from friends of King, he never denied his affairs, so how is it that the FBI failed?

It's stated in the documentary that the tapes from the FBI's surveillance, which would undoubting reveal King's sexual affairs or affairs otherwise won't be available to the public until 2027. Pollard's film has his interviews ponder what will happen when those tapes are released in terms of King's legacy. Some speculate nothing will happen besides some sensationalist discussions or lurid articles. Most of it will be and remain on the Internet. However, there is contemporary evidence that King's legacy will be fine. When damning audiotapes of President Donald Trump were released, nothing happened to him. The infamous Access Hollywood tape of Donald Trump, as well as the other sex scandals that he faced prior to the 2016 election didn't hurt him.

Rated TV-PG.

Running Time: 1 hr. and 46 mins.

Available on Hulu.