Selma

Starring: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson, Tim Roth, Stephan James, Andre Holland, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Colman Domingo, Omar J. Dorsey, Tessa Thompson, Wendell Pierce, Common, Giovanni Ribisi & Oprah Winfrey

Directed by: Ava DuVernay

Rating: ★★★★½

Selma, Alabama.

Fifty years ago, one of the most important moments for civil rights in the United States took place in this small town, led by several civil rights activists, including Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin and his wife Coretta are at the very centre of the movie.

Strangely, I knew nothing about these events, so I was enlightened and enthralled when watching this movie about them.

Set in 1965, and based on several different accounts of what took place, Selma is told mostly through the eyes of Martin Luther King, Jr. himself, and chronicles the plight of hundreds of black Americans to be granted one of any democratic nation’s basic human rights: the right to vote.

They just want to be able to vote...

After accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, Martin Luther King, Jr. (Oyelowo) meets with American President Lyndon B. Johnson (Wilkinson) to discuss the fact that black citizens are still being denied their right to vote. After an uneventful conversation, Martin demands federal legislation to allow all black citizens to be able to vote fairly.

In order to make his point, he travels with his wife Coretta (Ejogo) to Selma to meet with other civil rights activists, and together, they plan a non-violent march from Selma to Montgomery. But those in power, including Governor George Wallace (Roth), are determined to stop them at all costs.  

It's going to be a challenge for everyone...

 

Selma is incredibly powerful, well made and moving. Not only is the story hugely gripping and interesting, it is also important for us all to remember that these events, which seem so far removed from us now, only happened fifty years ago.

The ensemble cast, led by Oyelowo, is, on the whole, very good. Oyelowo gives a very strong performance in a role that any actor would be terrified to play, as Martin Luther King, Jr is so iconic and important that he needs to be treated with respect and given the gravitas he deserves. Oyelowo is able to do this, and is best when he delivers his prevailing speeches with authority and dignity.

Martin's speeches are some of the best bits in the movie.

Here’s a horrible fact for you about the speeches in this movie: every single one of them had to be rewritten by director DuVernay herself because Dreamworks and Warner Bros would not give the film the rights to use King, Jr.’s original speeches…

And we’ve supposedly moved on from 1965?

Oprah Winfrey, in an almost cameo role as Annie Lee Cooper, is fantastic as she always is. I still think she should have won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Color Purple, and even though she gets about five minutes of screen time in this, she still proves why she’s one of the most underrated actresses ever.

When a non-violent protest turns violent...

I really can’t express how much I loved this movie. I’m not normally a fan of agenda driven films that try to shove a message down your throat, which is what I thought Selma would be. But it isn’t at all. It isn’t overtly preachy, and this is mainly because it feels so believable. Selma makes Martin Luther King, Jr. and everyone around him human. We see their struggles, and they feel like obstacles that might not actually be overcome.  It shows the horrific things the people of Selma had to be subjected to in a way that isn’t over the top or unreal. Selma has a level of authenticity that is hard to see in any movie- it feels so real and so immediate, that it just demands your attention and respect.

I also really loved that fact that King, Jr. is fallible. He’s a human being who makes mistakes and has an agenda but, through it all, even though he has doubts his doubts, is guided by a higher being.

The Christian core of the film is also very potent...

Although the film has been criticised for its historically inaccurate depiction of the relationship between King, Jr. and President Johnson, at the centre of Selma is character and plot, and this is why it is so just amazing. In a time when most modern movies have forgotten how to actually tell a story, Selma manages to blow all the competition away by teaching them that modern movies can still be good.  

Shockingly enough, I’m not the only person who thinks this. Selma is currently one of the best reviewed movies of all time, with a 99% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is really quite an achievement!

They're marching in the light of God!

But what is even more shocking is that Selma has only been nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Song at this year’s Academy Awards! I think that the script and directing being ignored is a travesty, especially considering that every speech had to be re-written to sound the same but with different words.

As a fan of John Legend, I would love for him to win an Oscar, but as a fan of Selma I would love it to win Best Picture. I’ve seen almost every film nominated this year, and I can happily say that Selma deserves to win Best Picture because it is the Best Picture. Unlike crap like The Grand Budapest Hotel which is poorly made pretentious rubbish that has nothing of any importance to say and isn’t even funny, Selma is, just like the march in Alabama all those years ago, something that really deserves mainstream recognition.