Selma (2014)

Genre

Biography | Drama | History

Director

Ava DuVernay

Country

United Kingdom | United States

Cast

David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Tim Roth, Common, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Carmen Ejogo, Lorraine Toussaint, Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding, Niecy Nash, Colman Domingo, Giovanni Ribisi, Alessandro Nicola, Keith Stanfield, Andre Holland, Tessa Thompson, Wendell Pierce, Omar Dorsey, Ledisi Young, Trai Byers, Stephan James, Kent Faulcon, John Lavelle, Henry G. Sanders, Jeremy Strong, Dylan Baker, Nigel Thatch, Charity Jordan, Haviland Stillwell, Tara Ochs, Martin Sheen, Michael Shikany, Michael Papajohn, Stephen Root

Plot

The film chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement.

Opinion

Selma is a good biopic, that reminds me a bit of Spike Lee's Malcolm X (starring Denzel Washington) and Lee Daniels's The Butler (starring Forest Whitaker). Well directed by Ava DuVernay, the film offers a harrowing look at the Civil Rights Movement of 1965.

David Oyelowo's performance is astonishing: he doesn't play MLK, he is MLK. Without him, this film would have been an average civil rights film, nothing more. Tim Roth does a great work portraying the racist George Wallace.

"Glory" by John Legend and Common is the perfect song for this film. "Yesterday Was Hard On All Of Us" by Fink is also good.

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Quotes

Martin Luther King Jr.: Who murdered Jimmie Lee Jackson? Every white lawman who abuses the law to terrorize. Every white politician who feeds on prejudice and hatred. Every white preacher who preaches the bible and stays silent before his white congregation. Who murdered Jimmie Lee Jackson? Every Negro man and woman who stands by without joining this fight as their brothers and sisters are brutalized, humiliated, and ripped from this Earth. 

Martin Luther King Jr.: Our lives are not fully lived if we're not willing to die for those we love, for what we believe.

Rating

8.0/10