Good But Flawed

Rating: 8/10 (22 January 2015)

Audiences that don't know a lot about Civil Rights history during the turbulent 1960s may have trouble appreciating "Selma," with David Oyelowo as Baptist minister and social activist Reverend Martin Luther King. "Middle of Nowhere" director Ava DuVernay's evocative historical drama about Dr. King's protest march in that same Alabama town benefits chiefly from first-rate performances, a gifted cast, and some devastating scenes about the reprisals that African-Americans and white faced in the struggle for African-American voting rights equality. Nevertheless, as good as it is, "Selma" is not without blemishes. This loquacious, often artistically uneven melodrama suffers from slow pacing and inaccurate history. Unfortunately, DuVernay and freshman scenarist Paul Webb have tampered with history to make their points. Primarily, "Selma" pits Martin Luther King against U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in several Oval Office confrontations, and many historians have taken the filmmakers to task for this ham-fisted blunder. Andrew Young, one of Dr. King's chief advisors during those fateful days, has gone on record about the relationship that existed between MLK and LBJ. In Young's own words, "He (LBJ) and Martin never had that kind of confrontation." Undeniably, "Selma" qualifies as a significant motion picture largely because Martin Luther King dominates the action. British actor David Oyelowo delivers a sterling performance as King that depicts his dedication to and compassion for equal rights for African Americans. Previously, most Civil Rights era films have confined King to the periphery, among them Spike Lee's "Malcolm X," Richard Pearce's "The Long Walk Home," and Richard LaGravenese's "Freedom Riders." The three-part, television miniseries "King" (1978) has been the only biography with any substance about the slain Civil Rights leader. Although Oyelowo carries the weight of the film on his shoulders, several other performances cannot be ignored, including Tom Wilkinson's earthy portrayal of Johnson, Carmen Ejogo as King's long-suffering wife Coretta Scott King, and Oprah Winfrey as tenacious voting rights protester Annie Cooper who refused to give up in her efforts to register so she could vote. Ultimately, the thing that makes "Selma" a memorable is the history that it painstakingly recreates at some of the actual settings, particular the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Despite its flaws and its largely conventional approach, "Selma" deserves to be seen because it chronicles how far America came in race relations during the 1960s and also how much farther we as a country must go to maintain equality.
My chief complaint about "Selma" is the filmmakers' casual regard about the use of history. Scenarist Paul Webb and director Ava DuVernay must have believed that audiences had an adequate knowledge about the Civil Rights movement. After the film opens with Dr. King receiving the Nobel Peace award, "Selma" takes a moment to show the explosion that claimed the lives of four adolescent African American girls at the 16th Street Birmingham Church in 1963. We're told little about this tragic incident before Webb and DuVernay plunge us into King's first strategy session with his lieutenants about a suitable place to launch their next protest. King wants to know if Selma Sheriff Jim Clark (Stan Houston of "Devil's Knot") behaves more like Birmingham Police Chief Bull Connor or Albany, Georgia, Police Chief Laurie Pritchett. You have to know something about King's unsuccessful Albany protest to understand why they talk about Pritchett. Police Chief Pritchett and his deputies did not resort to the same kind of brutal violence that Birmingham Police Chief Bull Connor wielded when he turned loose snarling dogs on African Americans and flattened them with blasts of water from fire hoses. Because Pritchett did not rely on violence, Dr. King's Albany protest generated little media coverage. Interestingly enough, at one point, King even put the protest movement on hold so Pritchett could take time off to celebrate a wedding anniversary with his wife!
Meantime, the struggles African Americans contended with in Selma are shown in vivid detail. Initially, Annie Lee Cooper (Oprah Winfrey of "The Butler") tried to register at the Selma court house, but the obnoxious Registrar (Clay Chappell of "Footloose") thwarted her at every turn. Later, after Dr. King and his lieutenants arrived in town, they discussed the ways that white officials intimidated African Americans from registering to vote. Poll taxes, civics tests, the requirement that an actual voter vouch for them, and lastly the publishing of one's name and address in the newspaper if one managed to register were used routinely to discourage African Americans from registering. Getting one's name in the newspaper served as an open invitation to either losing one's job or being beaten up, shot at, and/or fire-bombed. The first Selma march that occurred while Dr. King was absent qualifies as the most frightening. Sheriff Clark's deputies waded into the marchers and attacked them with clubs lashed with barbed wire, and they beat the living daylights out of anybody. Earlier, when Annie Lee Cooper assaulted the pot-bellied Clark at the court house, white lawmen had piled ont0 her without restraint, and they arrested anybody who had participated in the protest. The most tragic moments occurred during a night march when Dr. King was absent again and Alabama State Troopers murdered a young African American.
Unfortunately, all too often, "Selma" degenerates into great men arguing in rooms. Dr. King and his advisors argue; Dr. King and LBJ argue, and LBJ and segregationist Alabama governor George Wallace argue. Although scenarist Paul Webb and director Ava DuVernay present Dr. King as a fully rounded individual, they make LBJ and Wallace look like caricatures. Most of "Selma" details the strategy Dr. King and his adversaries adopted during their crusade. Only when DuVernay stages physical scenes without chatter does she hammer home her salient points. Eventually, African Americans triumphed because they recruited liberal white supporters. The scene where racist rednecks assault a white Boston priest and beat him to death is chilling. As a stirring historical drama about our controversial past, "Selma" is a must-see movie, particularly if you know little about Martin Luther King.