Selma

 

Selma 2014

• Director: Ava DuVernay
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Wilkinson, Giovanni Ribisi, André Holland, Wendell Pierce
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• David Oyelowo – A United Kingdom, Interstellar, The Butler, The Help, Small Island, Last King of Scotland, As You Like It, Derailed
• Carmen Ejogo – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Sparkle, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Cold Lazarus
• Oprah Winfrey – The Butler, Beloved, The Colour Purple
• Tom Wilkinson – The Lone Ranger, Hotel Marigold 1&2, The Conspirator, The Ghost Writer, Valkyria, Batman Begins, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mid, Girl with Pearl Earring, Before You Go, Shakespeare in Love, Wilde, The Full Monty, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Sense and Sensibility, Prince of Jutland, In the Name of the Father
• Giovanni Ribisi – The Rum Diary, Public Enemies, The Dead Girl, Cold Mountain, Friends, Lost in Translation, The Gift, Saving Private Ryan, The Postman, The X-Files
• André Holland – Miracle at St Ana
• Wendell Pierce – The Wire, Ray, Bulworth, Malcolm X, I’ll Fly Away
• Tim Roth – The Hateful Eight, Liability, The Beautiful Country, To Kill a King, Gridlock’d, Rob Roy, Pulp Fiction, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
• Why? The subject.
• Seen: 2 December 2022 

       In 1964 Martin Luther King led the movement in Selma, Alabama for the right to register to vote. The movement was so much more.

       This is s portrait of both the Civil Rights Movement and the individual leaders with MLK (Oyelowo) at the front with his doubts, fears, despair, strength, anger, fatigue, stamina and eloquence. His dream. It doesn’t flinch from showing the violence, the vicious white racism, the conflicts within the movement, President Johnson’s (Wilkinson) reluctance to recognise the necessity of the movement.

       David Oyelowo is absolutely convincing as MLK, as is Carmen Ejogo as Coretta King.

       It’s a powerful film. And the struggle continues. 

4 ½ * of 5