DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Day of Drums
During the nearly 50 years of its existence during the latter half of the 20th century, the United States Information Agency used a variety of media to fulfill its diplomatic and educational mission to promote the national interest, including a number of documentary films which the agency produced. One such film was Years of Lightning, Day of Drums, a film produced after the Kennedy assassination to chronicle the achievements of his brief presidency. It was directed, interestingly, by Bruce Herschensohn, a filmmaker who, after working his way up to head the USIA’s film division, ended up as an advisor to both Nixon and Reagan before seeking elected office as a Republican.
Given the current political tenor, the thought of someone on one side of the aisle making a film lionizing the life, politics, and policies of someone on the opposite side seems rather foreign now. But Herschensohn did such a fantastic job with the film that the USIA made the highly unusual move of not just using the film in their usual venues, but allowed a distributor to give the film a proper theatrical release, an action that required a special act of Congress to take place. It was well received in its general release, and made the National Board of Review’s list of top ten films of 1966, alongside now-classic titles that included Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and A Man for All Seasons. Tonight’s AFI screening of the film will be introduced by legendary producer — as well as AFI founder, and head of the USIA film division when this film was made — George Stevens, Jr.
View a collection of highlights from the film.
Tonight at 7 p.m. at the AFI. $5
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King: A Filmed Record…Montgomery to Memphis
As it does every year on Martin Luther King Day, the AFI will screen Sidney Lumet and Joseph Mankiewicz’s sprawling MLK documentary. The two directors began putting the film together not long after King’s assassination, pulling together as much newsreel footage as they could find about the man. That includes plenty of well known moments like his “I Have a Dream” speech and Nobel prize acceptance, and, with a running time of three hours, lots of seldom-seen footage as well. The directors enlisted the services of celebrities including Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Burt Lancaster and Charleton Heston, among others, to narrate the piece. As has long been the case, there is still no home video release of the film, making the AFI’s annual screenings one of the few opportunities to see the full, uncut film.
View a clip from the movie.
Monday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the AFI. Tickets are free, and are only available from the AFI box office on Monday, with a limit of four tickets per person.
