Selma (2014)

Selma may be the greatest, most important film of 2014. That’s right, not Boyhood (which is brilliant) or Birdman (which is equally brilliant) as many critics would have you believe. Don’t get me wrong, both of those films are great and deserving of praise, but neither of them is quite as meaningful as Selma. Selma, of course, is the story of Martin Luther King Jr. but make no mistake this isn’t merely a biopic; rather, this film is a very specific snapshot of King’s life, one that focuses mainly on his fight for the African-American’s right to vote and his march from Selma to the capitol of Alabama. The choice to make a Martin Luther King film purely about this one part of his life is nothing short of brilliant and if anything it makes the movie more impactful than a simple overall take on the man himself.

One of the more poignant films made about the civil rights movement (that I’ve seen), Selma honestly couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. The parallels between Selma and Ferguson are almost undeniable and the life and work of Dr. King seems more relevant than ever now. Selma doesn’t dwell on the violence, but it doesn’t shy away from it either. It’s hard to watch the Bloody Sunday scene on the bridge without tearing up, but this movie isn’t about the oppression and violence, or the white man; it’s about Dr. King and his fight for freedom and the dream that he fought so hard to make come true and that’s what makes this film stand out.

As for David Oyelowo’s performance as Dr. King, it’s damn near perfect and he’s practically indecipherable from the man himself; it’s really a crime that he wasn’t nominated for his role and the Academy should feel ashamed that they missed an opportunity to make a real statement here by giving him a very deserved nomination. Everyone else is incredibly well cast, as well, especially Tom Wilkinson as President Johnson, who absolutely nails the part. Also, shout out to Oprah Winfrey, who blends perfectly into her role as well.

Now, much has been made about the historical accuracy of this film. Some claim that it paints the President in a poor light and dramatizes his opposition to Dr. King, when in actuality he supported King. In my opinion this argument is petty and ridiculous and is akin to those who argue that some slave owners were “really nice” to their slaves and never whipped them, or whatever nonsense racist people say. Bottom line, they owned slaves didn’t they? And the bottom line here is that voting rights for African-Americans wasn’t a priority at all to President Johnson and he definitely dragged his feet the whole way. In fact, the only reason his hand was forced was to prevent more violence. In addition, he was also privy to J. Edgar’s constant wire-tapping and threatening phone calls; perhaps he wasn’t aware of the details, but he had to have known it was happening. To his credit, Johnson does seem to empathize with Dr. King’s cause and he does end up making the right decision, if only not to go down in history as a bigoted racist like the governor of Alabama at the time. Also, so what if the film has made a few historical tweaks to dramatize the film? Other filmmakers do this sort of thing all the time and virtually no one complains; you have to ask yourself why it’s such a big deal when Selma does it.

Finally, if you’ve heard that Selma isn’t getting good reviews (something I’ve heard a few people say) this is false. If you look at Rotten Tomatoes it currently sits at ninety-nine percent with an average score of 8.7, and virtually every legitimate critic has given it a positive review, and with good reason as Selma is a damn good film (also the audience rating is at eighty-eight percent with an average 4.2 out of 5). Ultimately, don’t let the media (or American Sniper) distract you from seeing this one, it may be one of the more important films of our generation and it’s sad that it hasn’t garnered more press and attention, but then I guess it isn’t exactly surprising. Martin Luther King has taken us a long way, but unfortunately, it seems we may still have a long way to go.

-Ryan Maples

Rating: 9.5

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1020072/?ref_=nv_sr_1