The March as we know it today has evolved since James Blue completed his work in late 1963. Political conflicts and conservation technologies have made their marks on the film over time. Below, you can learn more about the different versions of The March, view one of them, and read a new transcript that expands our understanding of the film.

The three versions

There are three versions of The March, reflecting the film’s complicated history.

1) James Blue’s “director’s cut” (late November or early December 1963)

This is the original version of the documentary. The director’s cut does not include the Carl Rowan introduction, and because of the filming technology available to Blue in 1963, there are several minor distortions involving the alignment of the sound with the image. The director’s cut was viewed in January and February by President Johnson, several members of his cabinet, key senators, and the USIA Advisory Committee, and it was sent to US ambassadors for their judgments.

2) President Johnson’s version (April 1964)

President Johnson decided the film needed a framing that celebrated the Kennedy and Johnson administrations’ support of the March and of civil rights. The vast majority of US ambassadors affirmed the quality of the film, with several expressing country-specific reservations. Carl Rowan, the Director of the United States Information Agency, created a one-minute introduction, which was added to Blue’s film in April 1964. The film was then re-distributed by the USIA to US embassies throughout the world.

View a clip of Rowan’s introduction to The March.

3) The United States National Archives’ restored version (2013)

To mark the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and to create an updated print of The March in recognition of its selection to the National Film Registry, the National Archives and Records Administration’s Division of Motion Pictures repaired the minor technical distortions in the original print.

You can learn more about the restoration process from an interview with Criss Kovac, supervisor of the Motion Picture Preservation Lab at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC.

https://lib-ohms.uoregon.edu/viewer.php?cachefile=mar001_the_march_documentary.xml

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