Selma (2014) Movie Review

Selma (2014)
D: Ava DuVernay
W: Ava DuVernay, Paul Webb
S: David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Carmen Ejogo, Andre Holland, Tessa Thompson, Giovanni Ribisi, Lorraine Toussaint, Stephan James, Wendell James, Common, Alessandro Nivola, Keith Stanfield, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Dylan Baker, Tim Roth, Oprah Winfrey


The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. finally gets a feature film dedicated to him in Selma. The film tells of King’s famous civil rights march from Selma, Alabama to the state’s capital Montgomery to oppose the unfair and dated policies that kept African-Americans from voting. But it also tells of all the politics and drama surrounding the event and the lead up.

Almost out of the gate this film was getting universe praise from critics, even now it stands at a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. I won’t lie there was a part of me that thought the film was mainly getting praise due to the subject matter and how one or two elements have parallels to recent events. Also it could have easily fallen into what I call, ‘m’kay’ movies. They’re films that deal with big issues but don’t do much outside of just saying they’re important issues without going any deeper. Basically the films are like, “racism is bad, m’kay?” or “addiction is bad, m’kay?” That doesn't make them bad by any means for me I just feel like they could have done more with the topic.

Thankfully this film does not fall into that category. While yes this film does deal with issues that are sadly topical, it is a film that shows what happened outside of the more infamous moments, and shows the lead up to the march. It displays a wonderful and complex portray of one of the most important men of the last century and an important event in his life.

A film I kept thinking of while watching the film was Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012). Mainly because both films are biopics of notable men and dealt with a very important, if not defining, moment in their life. Both also played it smart and portrayed the lead men as humans.

Many biopics portray their subject as a Saint among men, who was flawless and so on. But with this film Ava DuVernay, the director, wisely shows that Dr. King was a man who had moments when he doubted himself. He was also a man had his own troubles outside of events related to the movements.

We see him and his wife Coretta Scott King (Carmen Ejogo) discuss the meaning of the march and of Martin's activism. We see that even though this was a couple who deeply loved each other, they still argued and the events pushed each of them towards their limits. It's a great portrayal.

Speaking of the portrays, David Oyelowo is absolutely flawless in his portray as King. And yes I do feel like he was robbed of an Oscar nomination. He manages to convey both the dynamic leader who would speak loudly and passionately about his movement and the people he stood for, but he also gives him many great quiet moments. It's a spectacular performance.

And the film was robbed of several other nominations. But at least it was nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Song.

Now like a lot of biopics, it has been the subject of controversy, mainly in the portrayal of then-President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson). The movie portrays him as somewhat reluctant to take immediate action of the civil right issues in the south when many actually say he was very involved and worked a lot with Dr. King.

As for me I thought it was a fair portrayal. The movie doesn’t make you hate him or view as the bad guy, you get an understanding that he isn’t ignoring the issue it’s just that he’s the man who is currently in charge of a nation who has a lot of issues going on. It was the 60's the guy had a ton of stuff on his plate.

The only people that are vilified are the ones who should be, and by that I mean the people who were rather racist, such as then-Alabama Governor George Wallace (Tim Roth), Sheriff Jim Clark (Stan Houston) and others like them.

It’s a wonderful film that handles its subject matter well and has a group of actors giving spectacular performances.

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