Selma (2014) Taking the selective biography route of Lincoln (2012), Selma deals with Martin Luther King Jr. and the Selma march that would lead to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that permanently stripped away all the impediments that kept African Americans voting fairly. Here we see the chess match of Civil Rights play across a very large field. On one side we got King and his entourage, wanting change desperately but knowing that they would not get it without some underhanded manipulation. On the other, are men like George Wallace, who pretend to have no authority on how the lower tier cogs act in his state, and stymie progress by any means necessary, including brute force. Selma is a powerful film that pulls no punches. I winched many times watching this film, as true acts of horror and violence were recreated. I thankfully was not raised to think in this manner, and thus have no comprehension of treating others like this so to be given a visual reminder of how things used to be, shocks and shames me even though I had no part in it at all. Like 12 Years a Slave, Selma does no glossing of history’s ugliness. It was a war that was eventually lost by the bigoted, but they took many people with them before equality became a reality. David Oyelowo amazes as King, showing him as we never like to think of him as; human, tired, and fallible. For all the good he did in his life, King was not the perfect man, with the strains he put on his wife Coretta (his past infidelities and the stress of being another face of the movement) almost caused their family to tear apart. Selma is about King but a big part of him is her, so kudos that their marriage and the clear lines it had is fully developed. One of the best films of the year, and rightly nominated for Best Picture and Director (Oyelowo got robbed for Actor though), Selma gives us a snapshot of a time that should be far behind us. Instead, with recent events reminding us we have so far to still go, it is a statement that change is possible. We just have to want it bad enough to get it, and keep it permanently. “Kane” https://youtube/watch?v=vlYBYMR1bFo
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 02:27:21 +0000