Selma

Synopsis: In 1965, over a 3-month period, civil rights leader Martin Luther King (David Oloweyo) headed a campaign aimed at getting President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) to pass a law which would effectively prohibit racial discrimination in the voting process. Using his philosophy of non-violent protest, King organised a march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, but the protestors were met with brutal opposition by local authorities. The final outcome of King’s campaign changed the course of civil rights forever.

I have nothing but praise for this moving, inspiring, intelligently-crafted film from director Ava Duvernay who hails from the world of independent film-making and is herself an Alabamian. Focussing upon a brief but critical time in a nation’s and an individual’s story, Duvernay presents the politics of the time in all its complexity and introduce us to King the man as opposed to the legend, with his self-doubts as well as his aspirations.

Oloweyo is magnificent as King (why there is no Oscar nod to him I don’t understand)  He grasps magnificently both the pride and statesmanship of the eloquent, inspirational activist as well as the man’s insecurities. Playing King’s wife, Coretta is Carmen Ejogo, and whilst the love between them is established early, the well-documented infidelities of King and the stress his chosen life puts on his wife and family are not shied away from. Wilkinson, fresh from convincingly playing an Aussie cop in Felony, now launches into a masterful portrayal of LBJ, the President against whom King pitted himself. The ever-impressive Tim Roth is Governor George Wallace, a Deep South politician desperate to make sure nothing changes in favour of the blacks in Alabama.

The ordinary people, including the leaders of the local student movement, religious leaders, both black and white, and the people of all ages in Selma committed to the civil rights cause and staunchly behind King, are all given their just dues. Oprah Winfrey shows her acting creds as Annie Lee Cooper, a domestic worker, who goes time and time again to register to vote, only to be dismissed on some bureaucratic technicality. Cooper’s bravery in taking to the streets repeatedly, even after physical assault, is moving although it can't be denied that her repeated appearance is due more to Winfrey's role as an executive producer than any narrative justification..

Giving us a rounded portrait of the times, on the other side of the fence are the defenders of the status quo, from J Edgar Hoover (Dylan Baker) and the FBI, which apparently assembled a 17,000-page dossier on every move King made, down to the redneck, racist Selma sheriff, Jim Clark.

The true humanity of this film is what ultimately makes it soar. We feel the pain of the people, being constantly oppressed and fighting so courageously for rights we take for granted. There are moments of brutality, and moments of uplifting joy. Even though the story is now 60 years old and America has seen an Afro-American president, it still feels utterly relevant and just as important today.

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