A Movie Review: Selma

Selma. Martin Luther King Jr (David Oyelowo) has just been given the Nobel Peace Prize.  His immediate move is to meet with President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson).  The two don't see eye-to-eye on what should be the main Washington DC political priority.  LBJ wants to focus on poverty.  MLK wants the focus shifted to voting.  To press the issue, MLK decides to head to Selma.  Selma is in Alabama.  The governor is George Wallace (Tim Roth).  The county sheriff is Jim Clark (Stan Houston).  MLK calculates correctly that these two individuals would misplay their hand.  The first reaction is mild; however, when MLK plans a march from Selma to Montgomery things heat up.  The march (MLK isn't leading the march as he is tied up at home dealing with personal issues) gets to the Edmund Pettis Bridge.  Here, the Alabama state troopers attack the marchers with batons and teargas.  It is a horrible scene that turns the tide in the favor of civil rights.

First of all, this movie gives you enormous respect for the various civil rights leaders.  To see Hosea Williams (Wendell Pierce) and John Lewis (Stephen James) marching over the bridge that first time really makes one think.  Would I be willing to continue walking knowing what was awaiting me?  Of course, to be honest, this is also a question one can ask when seeing similar largely non-violent protests pop up in our own day and age such as in Egypt.

The movie also openly admits to the conflicts that arose between the various civil rights organizations, specifically highlighted in this movie is the differences between MLK and his team versus SNCC.  SNCC had worked in Selma for months and didn't appreciate MLK and  his organization taking the lead in that city.  The political, strategic and tactical decision making is interesting to watch unfold on screen.

My one criticism of this movie (and a similar criticism can be tossed at Lincoln) is that it perhaps plays more to the politics/history junkie.