Selma (2015) - Film Review
Starring: David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Carmen Ejogo & Tim Roth
Screenplay: Paul Webb
Directed By: Ava DuVernay
Certificate: 12
Despite
being one of the most recognisable and influential figures of the
20th Century for his work in helping achieve racial
equality, retelling the legacy of Martin Luther King isn't something
that's become particularly commonplace on the big screen. There's a
variety of explanations you could offer for why this has been the
case, but one of the biggest is that King's descendants inherited the
exclusive rights to his famous speeches when he was tragically
assassinated. While these have since been sold to other film studios,
Selma is attempting something more difficult –
telling King's story (or part of it at least) without these speeches.
It's a tall order, so can it pay off?
In
1965, Dr. Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for
his work in helping to end racial segregation in the United States.
However, equality was still far from being absolute. Although African
Americans had the legal right to vote, intimidation and manipulation
of the law prevented them from doing so. After urging the President
to end this, but being met with an unwilling response, King and his
supporters travelled to the town of Selma, with plans to hold a
peaceful protest march through to Montgomery. With worldwide media
attention, King endeavoured to complete the march, even in the face
of brutal opposition.
One
of the biggest mistakes a biopic can make, is painting the person
it's primarily focusing on as some kind of flawless saint and delving
into hero worship. When you're putting such a large amount of focus
on someone as iconic and revered as Martin Luther King, it becomes
even easier to fall into this trap. Thankfully, Selma
proves itself to be smarter than this, acknowledging King's flaws as
well as his accomplishments. The film touches on the troubled
relationship between King and his wife, as well as the divisions that
existed among King's own supporters when the Selma marches were being
arranged. At the same time, Selma doesn't just trounce
all over the man's legacy, and it in fact shows him not just as a
brilliant, inspirational public speaker, but also intelligent and
tactical, knowing just how to get media attention for his cause. King
chose Selma for the voting rights march because he knew it was an
area rife with racial tension, and that the town authorities were
strongly opposed to the equality movement. Like poking a sleeping
bear, he knew it would provoke a reaction that would get media
coverage and gather support for his cause.
The
reaction to the march itself was brutal, and director Ava DuVernay
captures and highlights the brutality faced by African Americans in
the 1960s disturbingly well. Sometimes it can be verbal attacks,
other times it can be physical, and both are just as uncomfortable to
watch. Early on in the film, we see civil rights activist Annie Lee
Cooper make one of many attempts to register to vote, but her
application is rejected because she can't name all sixty-seven
Alabama county judges. There's something so sickening about the
events that play out in this scene, and the way it's put together,
that it becomes one of the most quietly profound moments of the film,
and definitely one that stuck out in my mind after watching. The
majority of the physical abuse comes from the response of the
authorities to various protest movements, and once again this is
recreated with disturbing accuracy, and at times becomes truly
hellish.
Selma
also
finds itself with a powerful lead performance from David Oyelowo. His
performance as Martin Luther King is simply astonishing, and could
well be the highlight of the film. I genuinely can't find fault with
it – his accent, delivery, and the range of emotions he's able to
convey are pitch perfect, and the actor honestly gets lost in the
character he's playing. As one of the biggest and most high-profile
depictions of Martin Luther King in recent memory, David Oyelowo does
him tremendous justice, even If the 2015 Oscars have snubbed him. His
tour-de-force performance is supported by a variety of strong
supporting roles, such as Tom Wilkinson's take on President Lyndon B.
Johnson, a surprisingly prominent appearance from Oprah Winfrey, and
Carmen Ejogo's impressive work as King's wife, Coretta Scott.
However,
the strength of everyone's performances also highlights one of the
main problems with Selma,
and that's its tendency to gloss over certain things. Every actor
involved here is clearly dedicated and invested in their roles, but
compared to the development it gives to King, the film doesn't put
much focus on them or allow them much development. There's other
civil rights parties involved with the film's events such as Malcolm
X and his supporters, but parties like this only get maybe one scene
that features them. Selma's
depiction of Lyndon B. Johnson was also a source of controversy
during the film's release, and understandably so, as this version of
the president isn't the great civil right champion that history has
remembered him to be. Although Johnson isn't exactly opposed to the
civil rights movement in the film, and Tom Wilkinson still delivers a
great performance, the film fails to give a sufficient explanation as
to why he can't pass through the voting rights bill. Johnson insists
that it has to wait, but never really explains why. While I'm on
areas that fall short in Selma,
it's worth also talking about the absence of many of King's famous
speeches. Now I can forgive their absence to a certain extent, as
Dreamworks and Warner Bros. exclusively own the rights to these
speeches and the film's events take place after his iconic “I Have
A Dream” speech was delivered. But when you've got a film that
focuses so heavily on Martin Luther King (despite the claims of the
director that it's a film about the people of Selma), it can't help
but feel somewhat incomplete without them.
While
criticisms like this have merit, the one criticism I don't understand
are comments about Selma's
production values. A certain number of people have argued that the
production of Selma
makes it look more like a made-for-TV film than something you'd find
getting a cinematic release. I'm not quite sure where this argument
is coming from, as the production design on everything from setting
to costume recreates the 1960s atmosphere very well. It's beautifully
shot by Ava DuVernay, and the accompanying music score fits well with
this tone and setting, particularly the track “Glory”, performed
by one of my personal favourite singers, John Legend.
Overall,
even with it's few flaws, Selma holds
up as a moving and powerful biopic, that does justice to one of the
most important movements of the 20th Century. The extent to which it glosses over certain aspects of
history and takes some liberties with it, may be too much for some,
but it's not enough to do too serious damage to the film in my
opinion. What's most striking of all is that Selma
is
still entirely relevant to audiences today, and despite the closing
moments of the film showing King giving a speech about how racial
equality is approaching, both we and the film know that it's not even
fully here today. We've still got work to do...
Selma
8/10