Selma Review: A Sobering Story of Martin Luther King’s Brilliance

Selma’s core concept of hope, peace and freedom is wonderfully inspiring.

Director: Ava DuVernay

Starring: David Oyelowo, Tim Roth, Cuba Gooding Jr, Martin Sheen, Carmen Ejogo, Dylan Baker, Oprah Winfrey, Lorraine Toussaint, Tessa Thompson. 

Rating: 12A

Running Time: 122 mins

Release Date: 6th Feb, 2015

When a director decides to approach a biopic about a historical figure that already resonates a legacy of gargantuan proportions, they accept a challenge that is open to a world of difficulty and criticism, failed heights and factual issues. Ava DuVernay, however, has created a film of complete brilliance, sobering truth, inspirational hope and visual wonderment. Tackling the story of Martin Luther King‘s civil march rights through Selma in Alabama and the vicious backlash he and his followers endured- DuVernay helms an outstanding cast, with British actor David Oyelowo at it’s centre, in a very raw and insightful narrative. 

The year is 1964 and Dr.King and his wife, Coretta Scott King (Carmen Ejogo), are sharing a personal moment before he accepts his Nobel Peace Prize. King is fussing with his ascot as he prepares his acceptance speech, constantly worrying about what his friends at home would think of the fancy attire. Despite his award and success of his “I have a dream” speech, Dr.King is frustrated with the lack of genuine progress on civil rights and decides his next next peaceful, but powerful fight will be the right to vote and Selma is the place to start. 

A small town in lower-west Alabama, Selma is the setting for this great story of Kings sheer determination, strategic ability and his power through a peaceful protest. The majority of the narrative focuses on the three marches from Selma to Montgomery where King and his organisation, The Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC), are met with absolute animalistic violence and racism. They continue their fight against the sheer ignorant discrimination that stripped African American citizens of their right to vote across the majority of Southern regions. 

What is so brilliant about DuVernay’s direction and Paul Webb‘s script, is the initial introduction to the backroom, dark world of politics and the in-house discrimination that ran through the world of American politics. A wonderfully convincing Tom Wilkinson plays President Lyndon B. Johnson who we see battling with King over when and how quickly he can pass the legislation protecting the right to vote. Other performances from Tim Roth as the hideous George Wallace, Dylan Baker as J. Edgar Hoover and Nigel Thatch as Malcolm X all enable audiences to get a glimpse at the strategic, back and forth of the marcher’s experiences in a world into politics. 

Selma provides audiences with a truly fantastic ensemble cast with performances from Wendell Pierce, Keith Stanfield, Andre Holland, Stephen James, Omar J. Dorsey and Lonnie Rashid Lynn that are all completely compelling. The female characters in Selma are wonderfully strong throughout the narrative, making for some incredibly refreshing, multidimensional female characters in a  film predominantly about one great man. The beautiful Carmen Ejogo plays Dr. King’s wife with a sense of vulnerability that brings home the reality of raising a family with a man of such power. Tessa Thompson plays Diane Nash, a powerful female member of the SCLC. Lorraine Toussaint gives a brilliant performance as Amelia Boynton, a key figure in the marches and Oprah Winfrey makes a fabulous cameo as civil rights activist, Annie Lee Cooper. 

Despite these wonderful performance, Selma is very much David Oyelowo‘s masterpiece. His performance as Martin Luther King is truly chilling in familiarity, one would not be exaggerating to feel as if King himself is projecting towards the audience. That well known, stoic voice, his peaceful, understated power and his general aura of hero are all so brilliantly represented by Oyelowo, that audiences are privileged to experience the multilateral persona that is Martin Luther King. Oyelowo showcases King’s human specter of emotions with ease and grace, portraying him as yes, a good man but also a man with faults like anybody else, making him delightfully vulnerable while still as powerful as ever. 

The scenes of heinous violence are horrifying and are a completely sobering experience, the sheer reality of what happened to those men and women on the first march are captured in a way of truth and honesty, while simultaneously making for an exhilarating, devastating visual affair. Cinematography from Bradford Young is wonderfully fresh and slick, adding a contemporary twist to this otherwise traditional biopic structure.

With the excessive violent acts and truly shocking content, what makes DuVernay’s Selma so wonderful, is its core concept of hope, peace and freedom. While one could easily get lost in the world of racism and hate, Selma manages to grab onto that seed on acceptance and hope that flourishes into a narrative of masterful standards. 

Verdict

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