The best Martin Luther King’s movies

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King

15/01/1929- 04/04/1968
We present our ranking of the best Martin Luther King’s movies. Do you love cinema? Or are you looking for a movie of your favorite actor to watch tonight? Surely you have some to see or that you did not know yet about Martin Luther King.
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J. Edgar

J. Edgar
6.5/10
  • Genre: CrimeDramaHistory
  • Release: 09/11/2011
  • Character: Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
As the face of law enforcement in the United States for almost 50 years, J. Edgar Hoover was feared and admired, reviled and revered. But behind closed doors, he held secrets that would have destroyed his image, his career, and his life.

Driving Miss Daisy

Driving Miss Daisy
7.3/10
  • Genre: Drama
  • Release: 13/12/1989
  • Character: Himself (voice) (archive footage) (uncredited)
The story of an old Jewish widow named Daisy Werthan and her relationship with her black chauffeur, Hoke. From an initial mere work relationship grew in 25 years a strong friendship between the two very different characters in a time when those types of relationships where shunned.

Da 5 Bloods

Da 5 Bloods
6.5/10
  • Genre: DramaWar
  • Release: 12/06/2020
  • Character: Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Four African-American Vietnam veterans return to Vietnam. They are in search of the remains of their fallen squad leader and the promise of buried treasure. These heroes battle forces of humanity and nature while confronted by the lasting ravages of the immorality of the Vietnam War.

Capitalism: A Love Story

Capitalism: A Love Story
7.4/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 06/09/2009
  • Character: Self (archive footage)
Michael Moore comes home to the issue he's been examining throughout his career: the disastrous impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Unitedstatians (and by default, the rest of the world).

13th

13th
8.2/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 07/10/2016
  • Character: Self (archive footage)
An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.

I Am Curious (Yellow)

I Am Curious (Yellow)
6/10
  • Genre: Drama
  • Release: 10/03/1967
  • Character: Himself
Lena, aged twenty, wants to know all she can about life and reality. She collects information on everyone and everything, storing her findings in an enormous archive. She experiments with relationships, political activism, and meditation. Meanwhile, the actors, director and crew are shown in a humorous parallel plot about the making of the film and their reactions to the story and each other. Nudity, explicit sex, and controversial politics kept this film from being shown in the US while its seizure by Customs was appealed.

The Green Book: Guide to Freedom

The Green Book: Guide to Freedom
8.2/10
In 1936, Victor H. Green (1892-1960) published The Negro Motorist Green Book, a book that was both a travel guide and a survival manual, to help African-Americans navigate safe those regions of the United States where segregation and Jim Crow laws were disgracefully applied.

Uncle Tom

Uncle Tom
8.2/10
In a collection of intimate interviews with some of America's most provocative black conservative thinkers, Uncle Tom takes a unique look at being black in America. Featuring media personalities, ministers, civil rights activists, veterans, and a self-employed plumber, the film explores their personal journeys of navigating the world as one of America's most misunderstood political and cultural groups: The American Black Conservative. In this eye-opening film from Director Justin Malone and Executive Producer Larry Elder, Uncle Tom examines self-empowerment, individualism and rejecting the victim narrative. Uncle Tom shows us a different perspective of American History from this often ignored and ridiculed group.

The Corporation

The Corporation
8/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 10/09/2003
  • Character: Self (archive footage)
Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.

Naqoyqatsi

Naqoyqatsi
6.4/10
A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.

I Am Not Your Negro

I Am Not Your Negro
7.9/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 03/02/2017
  • Character: Self (archive footage)
Working from the text of James Baldwin’s unfinished final novel, director Raoul Peck creates a meditation on what it means to be Black in the United States.

Reel Injun

Reel Injun
7.5/10
The evolution of the depiction of Native Americans in film, from the silent era until today, featuring clips from hundreds of movies and candid interviews with famous directors, writers and actors, Native and non-Native: how their image on the screen transforms the way to understand their history and culture.

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
8.4/10
A chronicle of Bob Dylan's strange evolution between 1961 and 1966 from folk singer to protest singer to "voice of a generation" to rock star.

MLK/FBI

MLK/FBI
7/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 26/07/2021
  • Character: Self (archival footage)
Based on newly declassified files, the film explores the US government’s surveillance and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Chasing Trane

Chasing Trane
7.3/10
  • Genre: DocumentaryMusic
  • Release: 14/04/2017
  • Character: Self - Civil Rights Activist (archive footage)
An account of the life of the brilliant jazz musician John Coltrane (1926-67), a gifted saxophonist, an extraordinarily talented thinker whose original, avant-garde work has impacted and influenced people all over the world. A story about music's ability to entertain, inspire and transform.

4 Little Girls

4 Little Girls
7.8/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 09/07/1997
  • Character: Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
On September 15, 1963, a bomb destroyed a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls who were there for Sunday school. It was a crime that shocked the nation--and a defining moment in the history of the civil-rights movement. Spike Lee re-examines the full story of the bombing, including a revealing interview with former Alabama Governor George Wallace.

Mike Wallace Is Here

Mike Wallace Is Here
7.4/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 26/07/2019
  • Character: Self (archive footage)
For over half a century, 60 Minutes' fearsome newsman Mike Wallace went head-to-head with the world's most influential figures. Relying exclusively on archival footage, the film interrogates the interrogator, tracking Wallace's storied career and troubled personal life while unpacking how broadcast journalism evolved to today’s precarious tipping point.

The House I Live In

The House I Live In
7.9/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 05/10/2012
  • Character: Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
In the past 40 years, the War on Drugs has accounted for 45 million arrests, made America the world's largest jailer, and destroyed impoverished communities at home and abroad. Yet drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever. Where did we go wrong, and what can be done?

August 28: A Day in the Life of a People

August 28: A Day in the Life of a People
6.1/10
Documentary film on events that happened on August 28th in African-American history, shown at the Smithsonian African-American History Museum.

The Soul of America

The Soul of America
7.3/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 22/10/2020
  • Character: Self (archive footage)
Writer, journalist, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and presidential biographer John Meacham offers his timely and invaluable insights into the country’s current political and historical moment by examining its past. Based on his 2018 bestseller of the same name.

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