Customer Reviews

The Speeches Collection: Martin Luther King, Jr. [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Contrary to what a previous reviewer wrote, "I Have a Dream" has had three sections chopped out of it; it's still a good version of an important speech. The audio here is often excellent -- good selections from the December '62 speech to the SCLC, a good cutting from "I Have been to the Mountain", a good (but too brief) quote from one of the anti-Vietnam speeches. One long section from just before the third Selma march (the one that succeeded) is also very fine. Well worth the money for those with an interest in public speaking and rhetoric. As sort of a bonus, you also get Bobby Kennedy's impromptu eulogy (though the space might have been better used for more of King).

Editing, however, veers all over; there are four "assembled" speeches (ones that were never given, assembled from pieces of other speeches). All of the Birmingham material is fragmented and out of order.

Further, the nostalgia footage, while giving aging boomers an excuse for a good cry, is so extensive that we only actually see King for about 1/3 of the tape -- the rest of the time you get the tiresome video editorializing for which the Speeches Collection is infamous. You don't learn nearly as much as you should about his delivery, and practically all footage of audience reaction is missing, so if you want to study King as a speaker, in detail, this tape will be very frustrating. (Is Joan Baez on a march really more interesting than MLK?)

Finally, two areas of King's career are stinted: his antiVietnam activity (we get only his short defense of his doing it -- none of his actual critiques of the war), and his preaching. To really represent him and his style, at least a few minutes of a sermon -- especially of one of his evangelical ones -- should have been included.

So three stars: there's material here that belongs in any good collection of public speaking, but there's also a lot of "Speeches Of" video hash and emotional pandering. If you use it to teach speech or rhetoric, now and then you will need to teach against the tape.

I use this video in my Language and Culture class. It not only contains the full text of many of King's important speeches, including "I Have a Dream," but also contains original footage of many important events of the Civil Rights Movement. It is excellent for both history and rhetorical analysis. Most students are moved by the film and come away with new respect. Highly recommended.

I first watched this on video when I was 8, 10 or some years old which I checked out @ the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library in Roswell. I think it once changed me how the way I feel about life and in the future. MLK has always been an inspiration to me how the way I'm livin' and how I'm playin the horn which is the trumpet. I praised God that he would've been 2day to see what it is. May God bless his soul.

And check out the movie "King" from the late Paul Winfield (1941-2004) R.I.P.

i bought this video tape about 2 or 3 years back and was very moved by it.Dr.King's words have always given me hope and helped me think out problems.his speeches are timeless and important to all Human Beings that are striving for a better Future.