some real power

Rating: 8/10 (25 November 2015)

The movie starts with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (David Oyelowo) receiving the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. Annie Lee Cooper (Oprah Winfrey) faces impossible hurdles to register to vote. President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) wants to concentrate on his war on poverty rather than voting rights. MLK decides to concentrate on Selma, Alabama. Opposing him are Gov. George Wallace (Tim Roth) and Sheriff Jim Clark.
I love some of the behind-the-scene discussions like the two kids from Albany. In the same token, the president strikes me as a little off. The movie needs to raise up a villain for the story. The president shouldn't fill any part of that role. It is more fitting for Wallace and the Sheriff. This movie needs some more from behind their lines.
It's a mostly quiet movie and it doesn't always get the balance between sincerity and thrilling. Some of the really sincere scenes drag. The big exception is Jimmie Lee Jackson's father at the hospital. The power exists in that man's face and the pain is all too evident. Of course, there is the first attempt crossing the bridge. That is a harrowing sequence delivering the same shock that the TV viewers of that day must have felt. David Oyelowo does a very nice reserved job with some big moments. Despite a few off notes, this movie is a powerhouse.