Historical drama tough, captivating

It was a movement whose time was long in the coming, and this movie was certainly long in the coming too. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had already cemented his place in history well before he had ever stepped into Selma, Alabama, to affirm black voting rights there. Certainly, it is a story of immense human drama and political import yet King is a person who has been sorely underrepresented in cinema.

Selma is director Ava DuVernay’s retelling of the events in the mid-1960s surrounding King (David Oyelowo) and the civil rights movement’s push to get U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) to force Alabama state officials to enforce blacks’ right to vote. Systemic discrimination meant that officials had too much red tape and loopholes and hurdles at their behest. Blacks were thwarted at every turn.

This is an important period in recent North American history, especially in light of last year’s civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. If one watches this without seeing how history can repeat itself then history will keep repeating itself. Selma should be shown in every social studies class from junior high and up.

Perhaps it could also be used to also demonstrate power relationships in the world for a school presentation on bullying. Those who have the power and the privilege are generally resistant to change and restoring fairness. Alabama certainly resisted.

In 1965, the state was not a friendly place if you weren’t white. The movie starts with King accepting his Nobel Peace Prize just before cutting to a scene in Birmingham where a box of dynamite set at a church kills four young black girls. The city’s nickname was ‘Bombingham’ because there was so much violence against blacks there. State Governor George Wallace (Tim Roth) had no interest in progress like enfranchisement.

The movie plays out like a faithful retelling of the segregation, the psychology and the struggle for the right to vote. These kinds of real life political dramas (see The Queen or Frost/Nixon) are captivating for bringing history and historical figures to the screen. At times, I thought that DuVernay was lingering too long on some mundane and minute details of the events but my 13-year-old son was riveted to the screen for its entire 130-minute runtime. I think that that says something.

So maybe I didn’t think that we needed to see every argument between King and his allies as they tried to figure out the best way to proceed, but maybe I’m wrong. It did much to further demonstrate the difficult road that King and his supporters faced. Regardless, it still serves as an eloquent essay on how fairness was won through passive resistance and it demonstrates the absolute nobility of those who fought and still fight by marching without raising their fists.

Oyelowo’s portrayal of King is strong. We get a very good sense of the man’s commanding presence and skill at oration. Carmen Ejogo is brilliantly understated as Coretta Scott King, his wife. There’s also a supporting cast of some heavyweights such as Cuba Gooding Jr., Oprah Winfrey, Giovanni Ribisi, Martin Sheen, as well as Wilkinson and Roth who plays an incredible role as the distinctive southern governor.

Some of the scenes are pretty tough to watch though, as might be expected but history isn’t always a walk in the park.