Selma

My Best Picture marathon (see my reviews of The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, Whiplash, and Birdman) continued last night with a screening of Selma.  This movie is an incredibly powerful and moving account of the Civil Rights marches from Selma to the Alabama state capitol of Montgomery to protest against voter registration discrimination.  It is 1964 and Martin Luther King, Jr. (David Oyelowo) has just received the Nobel Peace Prize and LBJ (Tom Wilkinson) has just pushed the Civil Rights Act ending segregation through Congress.  MLK wants more because millions of African Americans are being prevented from voting in the South because of prohibitive poll taxes, unrealistic sponsorship requirements, and elaborate civics tests.  (The scene where Oprah Winfrey's character, Annie Mae Cooper, quietly tries to register to vote is one of the most poignant in the film).  LBJ feels that he has done enough for the time being and wants to push through his War on Poverty agenda but MLK can't wait (There is another great scene between the two leaders in the Oval Office).  The city of Selma is selected for the protest because its Sheriff, Jim Clark, is a bit of a hothead and his reaction to their peaceful protest will get the SCLC the national coverage it needs to convince LBJ.  After the violent confrontation between peaceful marchers and the police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge (Bloody Sunday), the epic march is allowed to proceed, culminating in an incredible speech on the Montgomery capitol steps (and, ultimately, the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965).  This is an emotionally charged film and I had tears in my eyes during the montage of actual footage from the march.  David Oyelowo gives an amazing, and humanizing, portrayal of MLK and the supporting cast is equally good.  Some notable stand-outs are Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King (the scene where Coretta confronts MLK about his infidelity gave me goosebumps), Giovanni Ribisi as Lee White (an adviser to LBJ), and Tim Roth as Governor George Wallace.   I loved the middle-of-the-action camera angles in the sequences on the bridge.  I felt like I was on the bridge with the marchers, breathing in the tear gas and feeling the sting of the whips and the blows from the clubs. It was highly effective.  You read accounts of these historical events in textbooks but seeing the images on the big screen makes the struggle so much more powerful and I felt so many things while watching.  The theme of this movie is particularly salient during these troubling times and I highly recommend it!