Welcome back to the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!
This time I'm talkin' about a fairly recent film, one from 2014 that sort of flew under the radar, only nabbing two Oscar nods, for Best Picture and Best Original Song. Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay, covers the events leading up to Martin Luther King's iconic 1965 protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and the fight for voting rights in the south. Played quite effectively but without flash by British actor David Oyelowo, King struggles with his role as the leader of the 1960s civil rights movement, balancing his philosophy of nonviolent protest and his growing impatience with America's leaders in Washington, specifically then-President Lyndon Johnson (played by Tom Wilkinson). On the other side of the battle of course were the racist Alabama state leaders, in particular Governor George Wallace (a stellar Tim Roth), and the barbaric Sheriff Jim Clark. MLK and his fellow activists were forced to exercise unfathomable patience and bravery in combating the violence of white supremacists with peaceful demonstrations in order to get their message across.
The most fascinating aspect of this film for me was how it delved into that strategy. There's a scene after the first crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge where Clark and his armed thugs viciously attack the marchers with clubs and tear gas, and one of King's protesters asks permission to come back with a pistol and shoot a couple of the officers. Andrew Young makes the ironclad argument that the murder of a couple policemen would be all the justification Clark's men would need to murder ten or more of the marchers. The genius of MLK's strategy was in outmaneuvering their boorish opposition; by remaining peaceful in the face of appalling police brutality while reporters were on the scene and cameras were rolling, it exposed these horrors to the rest of the country and rallied millions their cause, eventually convincing LBJ to put his presidential might behind the Voting Rights Act. How telling is it that of the two sides on the bridge that day the folks with guns, clubs and tear gas were the ones who felt threatened? And no, this film's depictions of Wallace, Clark et al are not an exaggeration.
Another brief but thought-provoking moment is when King's wife Coretta meets with Malcolm X, who urges her to convince Martin to let him take the lead and scare the white establishment into seeing King's approach as tame by comparison. Ask for more than you want and your adversaries will compromise up.
Selma is presented as a fairly small-scope, intimate study of this one brief episode in the grand struggle for civil rights, making every moment feel immersive and impactful. The tension in the protest march scenes is allowed to breathe and feel palpable, particularly during the second march when the cops on the other side of the bridge step aside but King doesn't trust that they won't ambush them the second they cross (on that particular day the black protesters had lots of allies on hand, a few of whom were later murdered by cowardly Klansmen). The film is photographed in shallow focus and high-contrast lighting, lending it a somber mood.
Historically the filmmakers went to painstaking lengths to recreate this world in accurate detail, but I do feel like LBJ got a bit of a short shrift. By all accounts Johnson was a staunch supporter of the civil rights movement and was eager to help King's cause, but was also beleaguered in trying to consolidate congressional approval. In this film however he's more of a reluctant ally who's more concerned with ending poverty, and only really gets things moving when his hand is forced. For all his faults, I find LBJ generally doesn't get enough credit for being as progressive as he was.
Sadly Selma and its ideas are still quite relevant in today's political climate, as basic human rights keep getting stripped away by would-be authoritarians. Along with Schindler's List and 12 Years a Slave, this film should be required viewing in every high school classroom. Will this country (or the world for that matter) ever move past petty bigotry and the violent tribalism it causes? I honestly have my doubts; like George Carlin I've begun to stop hoping for a good outcome.
I give Selma ***1/2 out of ****.
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