A first-class tribute to The Civil Rights Movement and MLK.
Selma
Grade: A
Director: Ava DuVernay (Middle of Nowhere)
Screenplay: Paul Webb
Cast: David Oyelowo (A Most Violent Year), Carmen Ejogo (Alex Cross)
Rating: NR
Runtime: 122 min.
by John DeSando
“We must March! We Must Stand up!” Dr. King
Although I was very much alive in 1965 during the march on Selma and equally so for the march from there to Montgomery, the docudrama Selma has brought them to life with a clarity I didn’t have at that time. This film presents almost without prejudice the actions of Dr. Martin Luther King (David Oyelowo), Governor George Wallace (Tim Roth), and President Lyndon Baines Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) in the march for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, freeing people of color to determine their fates through enfranchisement.
Director Ava DuVernay’s Selma dramatizes the culture-changes through Dr. King’s perspective as we listen to his lyrically-phrased speeches (modified for copyright purposes, I understand) and carefully articulated private conversations (how could anyone improve on “the dark corners of the halls of power”)? Although much of his private speech has the unreal ring of grandstanding, notwithstanding his great gift of oratory, the film portrays a leader at the peak of his creative and leadership gifts, with a hint of fatalism that plays subtly with our historical knowledge of his assassination. He has just won the Nobel Peace Prize but is far away from peace.
This docudrama also touches on the challenges for his marriage to Coretta Scott King, mostly referring to the demands that were compromising his status, not just through the FBI’s attempts to undermine it but also his well-known affairs, barely referenced here. Although I care not a bit about his personal life, his success as the premiere civil rights leader was made vulnerable by his indiscretions and should have been addressed, just as any current biography of JFK should address his infidelities.
The lead performances, starting with David Oyelowo as MLK, are first rate. The film takes a slow, deliberate, and wholly informative journey through King’s civil rights days, thereby making a most accessible docudrama out of a most insane time.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
