This is the version of Martin Luther Knig’s “I Have a Dream” most Americans never learned in school.
You see a man hated by the White House, hounded by the FBI, doubted by his own movement, and who still refused to back down.
Trailer for “King in the Wilderness”
You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up
- Martin Luther King Jr.’s own children begged him not to leave for Memphis. They blocked the door and jumped on his car the day he was assassinated. They sensed something terrible was about to happen.
- King predicted his own death often, telling close friends he wouldn’t make it to 40. The night before he was killed, he delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech after being called out of bed, reluctantly, to speak.
- The FBI was sending King threatening letters urging him to kill himself. The same FBI bugged his hotel rooms and tried to use tapes against him in the media.
Watch “King in the Wilderness”
You can stream “King in the Wilderness” on HBO Max via Amazon.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 92/100
- IMDB Rating: 8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 94/100 (Users); 100/100 (Critics)
Director’s Note: Directed by Peter Kunhardt, who also made “True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality” and “Becoming Warren Buffett.” He’s a master of archival-driven biography. This 110-minute HBO doc originally aired in 2018, timed around the 50th anniversary of King’s death.
Release Date: April 2, 2018 (HBO)
My Review of “King in the Wilderness”
The Setup
Most of us grew up with the sanitized MLK—the peaceful marcher, the “Dream” speech, the feel-good legacy. This doc scrapes that away and focuses on his last 18 months: when he was tired, unpopular, and predicting his own death. He’s fighting against racism, poverty, and war—and losing allies every step of the way.
It’s an emotionally heavy doc, but also the most honest portrait of King I’ve seen. It makes his legacy even more heroic because it shows the cost.
King didn’t die a national hero. At the time of his death, over 60% of Americans disapproved of him. This doc shows why.
More Highlights from the Doc
- The doc walks through major events: the Chicago Freedom Movement, James Meredith’s shooting and the march afterward, and King’s hard pivot into anti-Vietnam War activism in 1967.
- King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech at Riverside Church in NYC (April 4, 1967) was the most controversial of his career—he called the U.S. the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world” and was denounced by 168 newspapers the next day.
- We see how the civil rights movement itself started fracturing. Younger Black Power activists said King was out of touch and “too slow.” Even his staff debated whether he was pushing too hard or not enough.
- The documentary shows how King shifted focus from civil rights to economic justice—his last campaign was for poor sanitation workers in Memphis. He believed the Poor People’s Campaign would be his riskiest move yet.
- Raw interviews from King’s closest allies—Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson, Diane Nash, Marian Wright Edelman—reveal the emotional toll of King’s final days. Several tear up on camera.
- King once said publicly that his dream had turned into a nightmare. This is a side of him most Americans never hear.
Lesser-Known Details from the Doc
- After the Watts Riots and Detroit uprisings, King admitted privately that he feared the movement was losing its way—and that America wouldn’t change without violence. He still refused to abandon nonviolence.
- King’s FBI file was over 17,000 pages by the time of his death. The agency tried to paint him as a communist, an adulterer, and a threat to national security.
- The doc includes never-before-seen archival footage and photos—some filmed in the final weeks of his life. These moments aren’t sanitized. They show King tired, uncertain, but still determined.
- King’s funeral procession mirrored JFK’s—his casket was carried on a mule-drawn wagon to honor the workers he died fighting for.
Wrap Up:
If you think you know MLK, watch this and prepare to unlearn. This is King at his most human—and his most radical.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc