Selma (2014) review

(Disclaimer: The bulk of this review was written before today’s Oscar nominations were announced. Due to the controversy surrounding the snubs of actor David Oyelowo and director Ava DuVernay, I have made a professional decision to not reference this in the following review.)

Martin Luther King Jr. will always be remembered as one of the leading forces behind the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 50’s and 60’s. While some like Malcolm X believed that violence was the answer to the many problems that African-Americans faced during this time, King, a Baptist minister, was not like that at all as he promoted peace through nonviolence and even though his life was tragically cut short in 1968 at the age of 39, his legacy will always stay strong due to the great impact that he had on the world and today we now honor him with his own national holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. One of the most notable things that he did during the Civil Rights Movement was to help organize a series of marches made from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama in March of 1965, more than one and a half years after King also organized the March on Washington where he delivered his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, in protest against the segregationist repression of African-Americans exercising their right to vote. These marches are the focus of ‘Selma’, directed by Ava DuVernay, which is notably the first major biopic based on Dr. King’s life. ‘Selma’ is an excellent film due to its extremely powerful story of inspiration as told from the perspective of one of the most iconic figures in American history, portrayed superbly in this film by David Oyelowo.

This film doesn’t shy away from showcasing a lot of the terrible things that African-Americans went through during this time, from the bombing of the 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham (which is one of the very first things that happens in this movie) to what has become known as ‘Bloody Sunday’, the first of the Selma marches where Alabama State Troopers attacked 600 marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. DuVernay does a fantastic job at both capturing these hardships and for also showing the emotional strength that King and his supporters had as well and their determination to set things right. In other words, this film benefits from strong direction and a clear focus. And even though the events of this film happened more than half a century ago, recent events like Ferguson show that although racism and prejudice aren’t really as prevalent as they were back then, that doesn’t mean that either of them have completely gone away. I’m going to quote a statement made by YouTube movie critic Michael from Belated Media as I feel that it perfectly notes why this movie is so important in today’s society as it shows both how far we have come since the time of King but also how much further we are from fully embodying the ideals that King himself promoted.

Leading the charge is David Oyelowo’s fantastic performance as Martin Luther King Jr. First of all, he absolutely looks the part but at the same time he also captures the poise, emotional strength, and conviction that King had as well. And it’s not like the film tries to over-glorify him or anything. At the end of the day, King was just a man who had his own problems to deal with. Like in this movie, for example, we see how all of this is impacting King’s family, especially his wife Coretta (played excellently by Carmen Ejogo). And when some of his people end up being killed as a result of the continued prejudice/racism against them, we really do see how much this effects King personally, especially in the scene where he consoles the grandfather of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was killed during a voting rights march. Oyelowo also shines in the one-on-one scenes between him and President Lyndon B. Johnson. While I’m aware that this film may not have entirely been historically accurate in portraying Johnston’s stance on the whole situation, Tom Wilkinson is still superb in the role. In short, the whole cast is superb, from Tim Roth to Oprah Winfrey, and because of this, ‘Selma’ is easily one of the best films of 2014 as it really will hit you on an emotional level showcasing some of the darker parts of our history while also highlighting the strength of the ideals of Martin Luther King Jr and how we can all still stand strong against the prejudice and racism that unfortunately is still around today.

Rating: 5/5!