User Reviews

This edition of "The American Experience" concerns the last weeks of the life of Martin Luther King and focuses in on his murderer, James Earl Ray. Ray's life and progression from an ordinary jerk in the prison system to a murderer is shown as well as the steps taken to locate him and bring him to justice.

Oddly, despite Martin Luther King being such a famous man and his accomplishments celebrated in American schools, his death is something talked about far less. While I knew quite a bit about King, I realized in watching this film just how ignorant I was of these facts about his killing--and I am a retired history teacher! The exceptionally well-crafted film is full of great details, interviews and information that really helped put this all into context. While very, very sad, the film is something everyone should see--a great documentary in every way.

Largely follows the facts. The only historical creativity is when they talk about Black people in USA and everything related to that. MLK went to Memphis to support a garbage men strike. The first Memphis march was actually a disaster because a violent Black youth group started a giant riot in the march. The documentary claims that "some young people broke some windows" and then the police attacked all Black people in the march creating the violence. That's extremely misleading. In reality MLK was anti-violence, but getting older and many Black people didn't take him seriously anymore as they were seeking violence and force. It was normal for these Black protests to turn into violent and deadly riots and the police were reacting in force because that's their job to some degree. This would happen in any city in any type of riot. The documentary is just wrong about this as we know from MLK himself what happened. Why would MLK lie or misperceive who caused the violence in a way that harmed his own cause?

Also, after the riot the youth gang met with the MLK people to demand a ton of money for not starting a riot in his next Memphis protest as the non-violence was the key element and he, and everyone with eyes, blamed the Black protestors for starting the riot and MLK losing his influence over the Black community even more. At the end they made a deal with the group to stop them from looting stores and stuff like burning cars during the protest. Furthermore it makes no sense for MLK to be this letdown by his march if he did nothing wrong in this pro union protest. MLK was becoming political and had radical left-wing ideas trying to make himself into a speaker for all races. Maybe leaning into politics as one of his lovers was a senator? A woman he was seeing in Memphis too and she was told to stay out of the ambulance as it would be hard to explain away. Basically, MLK was trying to recreate his image and fight and was also trying to remain relevant in a time where Black people started to ignore him. The documentary is completely misguided on this stuff.

The factual events about single people are correct. All the stuff about MLK and Ray, his killer, were factual and clearly presented. Even small things about where Ray shot from. But it's all extremely fast paced. They skip 95% of the events. There were a ton of curious things happening before and after the shooting. The rumors about FBI or a cop shooting him for example were quite strong. Back then killing of famous leaders was weirdly popular. JFK, MLK, and JFK's brother. 1 president, 1 leader, and 1 who was just about to become the most progressive president in US history shot by a Muslim who hated his Israel friendly ideas. Some young men would buy a gun and try to make a name for themselves. This was before the internet so it makes sense they tried to do something in real life instead of whining online.

When Ray initially tried to drive out of the city a fake call to the police told them there was a driver following a speeding car escaping Memphis. The cops searched for this fake car getting nowhere and these small things meant Ray had a way out of town as you need to get lucky to find a window to escape. The cops and FBI were just behind him and these small things made a huge difference so it's a shame they are skipped here. Rev. Jesse Jackson too made up a story about how he was holding MLK after he got shot. So these fake stories were everywhere confusing people. Trolls wanted to get fame or just have fun with lies.

Basically, they skipped nearly all the tracking down the killer stuff and only loosely mentioned small facts about it. They don't even go into how he during his flight tried to rob a bank in UK, how he called an expert on Africa's Western soldiers of fortune, and how he wanted to escape to apartheid Rhodesia via Belgium thinking he could be a soldier of fortune for a White only group. And how he during WW2 was basically a Nazi supporter and in prison told fellow prisoners he would kill MLK. All this is, to me personally, quite curious. I get why PBS wants to make it all super progressive, but it's stuff we already know so I would rather they had added facts instead of yet again talking about progressive politics. I think this is a giant issue with PBS because once you have seen one of their documentaries you already see and get their political biases and they really don't need to reexplain them again in every single freaking episode. Yet they do just that. Just create a 10 hour episode talking about how progressive values are amazing and how conservative people are evil. Then when making these singular episodes focus on the facts. That's my suggestion. Otherwise it becomes hard to recommend. I would rather recommend short summaries with no talking heads.

If anyone has researched the Assassination of MLK on their own, they know it's complicated and JER may have been involved, most likely unknowingly, but certainly like LHO & Sirhan, was not a "Lone Nut Assassin" as has been pushed by the MSM since 1963.

Just look up the video online of what Dan Rather reported after viewing the Zapruder Film (which wasn't seen by the public until 1975) and you'll see he said JFK's head moved "Violently Forward" after the fatal head shot - then watch the footage for yourself and you'll see he lied and his career was launched from that point.

Dan Rather has been part of this and other for generations and labeling anyone who disagrees with the government conclusions are "Conspiracy Theoriest" and other names rather than allowing for an intelligent investigation on issues the American public has continually stated they don't believe the "Official Story" as high as 90% in some cases.

PBS has been decimated over the years until they are now a liberal or progressive propaganda force putting out this type of garbage on JFK, MLK, RFK and other controversial events in a simplistic view rather than the complex way they are.

Anyone who believes JER was stalking King to assassinate him should look deeper into this case. JER was a small time crook then like LHO & Sirhan became a Patsy.