There has been massive buzz and effusive praise for Selma, yet we all know the dangers of too much effusive buzz. You can ride high on that wave but the silver screen reality often leads to massive let down. Nevertheless, if I were any less full of praise for Selma, I would be lying. Ava DuVernay has created an inspirational masterpiece.
Selma covers the trying times of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. That were led by James Bevel, Hosea Williams, and Martin Luther King, Jr. of SCLC and John Lewis of SNCC. The film benefits from keeping the focal point to a moment in time rather being a biopic centered on MLK. Although Martin Luther King Jr. is the core, things doesn’t stop with him. The story zooms out past the notoriously patriarchal retellings of the Civil Rights Movement to include the women who were there.
Special attention is paid to Annie Lee Cooper (Oprah Winfrey), Diane Nash (Tessa Thompson), Coretta Scott King (Carmen Ejogo -- her second time as Mrs. Scott King!) and Amelia Boynton (Lorraine Toussaint). Selma shows how women were some of the first to act, working behind the scenes and walking on the front lines, risking their lives in effort to gain the right to vote. While the film makes it clear women had just equally important and dangerous roles, they don’t get nearly the time they should. Selma just barely passes the Bechdel test. I would have really appreciated one more scene of women talking amongst themselves.
Although each character is based on a real person, far too often the passage of time flattens out their dynamic humanity; they become sainted and sanitized. This is particularly true of Dr. Martin Luther King. Whiteness has taken Dr. King’s legacy and turned it into their “personal puppet that says “I have a dream” when you pull the string.” Concerning the recent unrest in the U.S., some have suggested that the modern protests be more like days of old. That black people need a sensible, peaceable leader like Dr. King; completely ignoring the fact that he was assassinated by the government anyway.
Luckily, Paul Webb’s script clears strips away that revisionist history. We get to see Dr. King and Coretta as completely human people who struggle with their personal faults, as well as the dangers and sacrifices they had to face. David Oyelowo is a revelation as Dr. Martin Luther King. His speeches feel fresh and engaging. You can see why Dr. King was an enthralling leader, but also how the burden of leadership wore on him and his family.
Selma takes you to backstage of the Civil Rights Movement. We are witness to fraught and frustrating meetings between Dr. King and Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson). We’re also witness to how those in the movement reacted to knowing they were being bugged and watched. We see disagreements about which way the movement should go and how civil disobedience works as strategy. We find out how the march --which was a plan B -- even came to fruition. We see why SNCC and the SCLC did not always get along. That even though the goal of freedom is shared, the path to achieve isn’t as agreed upon as revisionist historians might have you believe.
Not only is Selma meticulously directed and wonderfully well acted, it is gorgeously lit with strict adherence to the period. Each beautiful image slide across your eyes in rich tones, with lighting specifically calibrated for African-American skin tones.
I wanted to cheer at the end of every speech. Witnessing the violence in scenes of the march made my blood boil, but Selma isn’t a film about pain and crying. I know many have reservations about seeing another film where black people suffer, but Selma is more than that. Selma is a film about bravery, fighting for what is right, and following through. I’ve never seen so much of the audience remain seated through the credits, transfixed by what transpired.
If past is prelude and considering our current political climate surrounding civil rights, Selma feels prescient.
I was lucky enough to experience Selma before the current controversy about LBJ’s portrayal took hold in popular discourse. This burden placed upon the historical drama (not documentary) began when Joseph A. Califano Jr. (President Lyndon Johnson’s top assistant for domestic affairs from 1965 to 1969) inked a review for the Washington Post that included this sentence:
“In fact, Selma was LBJ’s idea, he considered the Voting Rights Act his greatest legislative achievement, he viewed King as an essential partner in getting it enacted — and he didn’t use the FBI to disparage him.”
LBJ was supportive of the CRM, however, The March on Selma was not LBJ’s idea. Although in the movie LBJ does not march with Dr. King and tries to dissuade him from demonstrating, he isn’t a villain in any sense. The film portrays LBJ as admittedly begrudging but ultimately relenting, in agreement with MLK, and getting the VRA passed. LBJ is on the right side of history and justice, yet folks are still very upset.
Another controversy surrounding the movie is the Oscar snub. Nicole Sperling writing for Entertainment Weekly quotes a member of the notoriously majority white, senior citizen, majority male academy who says, “It’s almost like because she is African-American, we should have made her one of the nominees,” says one member. “I think that’s racist. Look at what we did last year with 12 Years.”
(Infogram courtesy of Lee and Low)
Ladies and gentlefolk, what we have here is a case of the privileged being absolutely unable to deal with the fact they are not always heros. They haven’t always been The Help we need and often been on the wrong side of justice and history. Even when the very deserving 12 Years A Slave wins awards, it’s not something Steve McQueen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong’o accomplished, it’s about what the academy members did. It says, “Your work would have been nothing without us. Aren’t we so kind to do this for you?”
The truth is Selma is actually excellent in every sense. Selma is about those who did the footwork. Those who spent their time and their bodies to achieve what is promised to every American by the Constitution. Selma is about how far we’ve come and how far we have to go.
Go see Selma.
DC, ;)
