Review: SELMA

SELMA  (DRAMA/BIOPIC) 
4 out of 4 stars 
Directed by Ava DuVernay
Starring: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tom Wilkinson, Tim Roth, Common, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Oprah Winfrey, Niecy Nash, Colman Domingo, Keith Stanfield
Rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic material including violence, a suggestive moment, and brief strong language.
128 minutes
Verdict: A riveting historical drama and a contemporary call to action, Ava DuVernay's biopic of Martin Luther King, Jr. is an unqualified success with a breathtaking powerhouse central performance by David Oyelowo.
YOU MAY ENJOY SELMA IF YOU LIKED:
MALCOLM X  (1992)
LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER  (2013)
LINCOLN  (2012)
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT  (1967)
JFK  (1991)

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of the towering figures of the 20th century, a citizen and a pastor, who organized non-violent protests to help defeat the oppressive Jim Crow laws that continued to hold black people under the thumb of the American South's white establishment for a century after the end of the Civil War.  A non-politician, but nonetheless an American icon of tremendous proportions, Dr. King is a figure that represents change by peaceful but stalwart means even in the light of brutal adversity, and his "I Have a Dream" speech continues to stand for the goal that our nation has not yet achieved.  A controversial figure during his lifetime, Dr. King is one of only three persons for whom a federal holiday has been named (the others being George Washington and Christopher Columbus), and the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965, a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, and memorialized by hundreds of city streets, monuments, buildings, etc.  Outside of the archival footage or dramatized "cameo", Dr. King as a person has largely been avoided by Hollywood, because if you're going to take on Dr. King's legacy in anything other than an after-school special, you've got to get it right.  Civil rights-themed movies have an additional burden to deal with the importance of their subject and not trivialize or whitewash, while also paying tribute to the legacy.
SELMA not only gets it right, but it knocks it out of the park with gravity, fervor and raw, riveting power.  It's both inspiring and infuriating, headlined by an astounding performance by David Oyelowo (LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER, JACK REACHER) as Dr. King.

David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in SELMA.

The story begins in the midst of Dr. King's civil rights work, in 1964, when he received the Nobel Peace Prize, already following some of the most significant landmarks of his life and the civil rights movement, like the March on Washington, 1963, when King gave his most famous speech, the "I Have a Dream" speech, and President Lyndon B. Johnson's singing into law of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, banning discrimination based on "race, color, religion, sex or nation origin" in employment practices and public accommodations, ending segregation.  This is juxtaposed, however, with the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963, an act of terrorism by white supremacists that killed four girls aged 11-14, and until the 1970s, the only charge held against the perpetrators was for possessing the explosives without a permit.  It's a world where progress has been made, but there is still much more to be done.  It is King's priority to campaign for black voter registration, voting being a technical right, but one being obstructed by discriminatory practices by southern territories requiring poll taxes, literacy tests or similar methods of disenfranchising black persons.  Meanwhile, President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) is prioritizing the implementation of his "Great Society" with the War on Poverty, and is reluctant to expend the political capital on voters' rights (a plot point that has been controversial in the press accompanying this film).  So King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), along with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Dallas County Voters League, organize a march along the 54-mile highway from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol of Montgomery, against the violent opposition of the brutish Sheriff Jim Clark (Stan Houston), Selma police officers and Alabama Governor George Wallace (Tim Roth).

Tim Roth as Alabama Governor George Wallace in SELMA.

Central to the film is David Oyelowo's performance, commanding the screen with power and pathos, portraying the man and the icon, with raw, crackling energy befitting one of the great orators of American history.  Conflicted over his priority to get the vote for black Southerners and putting this above the similarly noble cause of reducing poverty, and attempting to balance his duties as a husband and father with the responsibilities taken on as the leader of the SCLC, Oyelowo walks the line between a man and a historical titan, one with frailties, but also immense strength.  Having premiered in November, SELMA comes on the tail-end of awards contenders for 2014 and its unclear whether it can build the "awards buzz" in time, but in addition to an assortment of other categories, recognition for Oyelowo's performance is wholly and unequivocally deserved.  The rest of the central cast has no weak spots, with Carmen Ejogo as MLK's wife, Coretta Scott King (the second time Ejogo has played King, having previously in the 2001 TV movie BOYCOTT) and Tom Wilkinson, always a welcome presence, as LBJ, and surprisingly fitting to the role.  Four major characters in the film are played by British actors, Oyelowo, Ejogo, Wilkinson and Tim Roth, as Gov. George Wallace; Roth is an unexpected choice for Wallace, and may cause some hesitation when he first appears onscreen, his distinct British accent swapped for a Southern one, but he proves also surprisingly well-adapted to the role.  There's an assortment of recognizable faces in the cast of SELMA, but director Ava DuVernay disperses them judiciously and appropriately, so that no one sticks out, while also casting them according to their strengths.  This is a cast that includes Oprah Winfrey (also a producer on the film, along with Brad Pitt through his company, Plan B) in a role that feels nothing like "Oprah".
DuVernay, a black woman (a double-minority in the industry) is not a particularly familiar name, although she was awarded the Directing Award for U.S. Dramatic Film at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012 for her film THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, but hopefully SELMA will provide her more mainstream opportunities in the future.  Her direction contributes heavily to the film's strength, wrangling an unwieldy topic without mitigating its gravity, showing the best and worst of Americans in the intimate and grand.  She has crafted a film about our history with all the relevance of the present, full of emotion and complexity.
SELMA is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest Americans, one that shows a legacy that brought us so far, but remains crucial to our progression.  I wholly encourage people to see this riveting, powerful film, and then do something about it.