The March

The PBS film gives us greater perspective and insight, probing the conflicted attitudes toward civil rights in the Kennedy administration, and detailing the last-minute panic over Lewis' speech.

Lavisly illustrated with archival footage, much of it rare, The March makes it almost easy to forget that words--not to mention the one man who said them--were the real stars that day.... Excellent, exhaustive.

A compelling look at the 1963 March on Washington for civil rights.

A succinct and well-conceived documentary.

It does a good job of selling an event that by all historical measures should sell itself.

When it comes to the day's central oration, Akomfrah can't quite leave King alone, laying in music below him--not the usual sentimental suet, at least, but a distraction and a distortion nonetheless; those words need no accompaniment. And here and there he processes an image for dramatic (and sometimes confusing) effect. But these are bumps in an otherwise well-laid road.