Talk:King (miniseries)

A good movie overall...
I've seen this miniseries a few times, and overall it's very well-done. I only noticed a couple of minor problems:

1. Paul Winfield was much too tall for this part. The movie depicts King as towering above everyone else, when in fact he was only 5'7". I suppose the makers of this film decided Winfield's acting ability compensated for this small inaccuracy.  Winfield was an undeniably fine actor, and his portrayal of King was quite powerful, but I'd think the filmmakers could have found some way to make him look shorter on screen.

2. Winfield's attempts to re-create King's speeches, in my opinion, fell flat. Unfortunately, King had an oratorical power that even talented actors like Winfield have proven unable to duplicate.

Aside from the above, "King" is a very good film. It shows King's heroic efforts on behalf of civil rights, but doesn't ignore his faults. Neither does it ignore his disagreements with other civil rights leaders, such as those who thought he was unwise to speak out against the Vietnam War. Most refreshing is the movie's less-than-idyllic portrayal of John F. Kennedy, whose support for civil rights was based more on political expedience than principle.

Incidentally, Kenneth McMillian's portrayal of "Bull" Conner was lifelike enough to be scary! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.56.113.189 (talk) 15:59, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Some fixups
I added some cites and did some reorganizing. I came across this because I've been looking at various 70s-80s miniseries articles. Apparently this miniseries was perhaps somewhat controversial, though I haven't read up on it enough to competently synthesize the sources I have cited. I hope someone is able to do that. It did terrible in the ratings, no doubt in part due to the controversy, but also the network seemed to think it would do great because Roots was such a blockbuster. That seems like a huge jump in logic. Roots dealt with the struggles and racism blacks faced from colonial times until the Civil War era, not the racism of the current day.--Milowent • hasspoken 19:48, 14 September 2020 (UTC)