2014 | Dir. Ava DuVernay | 127 Minutes
"What we do is negotiate, demonstrate, resist."
Director Ava DuVernay's Selma recounts the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, offering a candid harrowing glimpse into the challenges and violence faced by the protestors participating in African-American Civil Rights Movement. Centered on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the SCLC's involvement in the marches, the film depicts a wide range of obstacles encountered by the activists, not least of which constant distressing surveillance from J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, represented onscreen throughout the entire film by the bureau's ominous memos.
Selma covers an incredible amount of ground, balancing Dr. King's personal struggles, the infighting among civil rights groups of the time, President Lyndon B. Johnson's reluctance to fully back the Selma marches, and not least of which the brutality surrounding the protests. The film's most striking element are the scenes of racially charged hate crimes experienced by African-Americans and their supporters. Shortly into the film's running time, a haunting scene plays out in slow motion depicting the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church that claimed the lives of four innocent girls, only the first of in a series of chilling scenes of horror that include the shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson - pursued by Selma police from a peaceful protest on the street and into a restaurant and killed for trying to protect his family, and the murder of James Reeb, a white minister from Boston who heeded Dr. King's call to clergy of all faiths for support.
David Oyelowo is tasked with the incredibly difficult job of bringing Dr. King to life on screen but he does so admirably, delivering Dr. King's historical speeches with proper authority while also showing a vulnerably in the man that is seldom portrayed. Though the film's portrayal of LBJ is controversial, Tom Wilkinson does a fine job as the conflicted president. Carmen Ejogo delivers a strong performance as Coretta Scott King, weary of the sacrifices made in the name of the movement, and fearful for her husband's safety.
Other notable supporting actors include Giovanni Ribisi as presidential adviser Lee C. White, Common as civil rights leader James Bevel, and Tim Roth as racist Governor George Wallace with Stephen Root as his cohort Alabama Public Safety Director Al Lingo (distracting in that both are just short of mustache-twirlingly evil). Late in the film Martin Sheen briefly appears as federal judge Frank Minis Johnson with Cuba Gooding, Jr. as civil rights attorney Fred Gray. Oprah Winfrey, one of the producers of this film, is featured in a small role as Annie Lee Cooper, famous for punching Selma Sheriff Jim Clark- an incident depicted in the film.
Setting itself apart from most historical dramas by featuring stark depictions of the high and often bloody cost of progress in the struggle for civil rights, Selma is a powerful and truly inspirational film.
FRAGMENTS
- Disappointed that Ava DuVernay was not nominated for an Oscar
- Also, disappointed that neither David Oyelowo nor Carmen Ejogo were not nominated for Oscars
MCU CONNECTIONS
- Tim Roth (Emil Blonsky in The Incredible Hulk)
- Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Endgame, Thor: Love and Thunder, and The Marvels)
