A struggle in microcosm

Rating: 8/10 (5 October 2017)

The metaphorical march to justice is a slow one; but a significant step was taken on an actual march, from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama in 1965, when a public protest triggered action that finally allowed black Americans to vote, after many years in which they had been prevented from doing so. You could hardly go wrong in telling this story, a microcosm of the broader civil rights campaign: in this drama, you have many of the major figures in the wider battle: George Wallace, Malcolm X, Lyndon B. Johnson, and of course, the charismatic Martin Luther King, who naturally takes centre stage in this movie. He's quite well brought to life by David Olelowo, who certainly looks the part and acts it convincingly (though the film mostly elides his private life). Tom Wilkinson is slightly less successful as Johnson, a more generic politician than the larger-than-life figure who emerges from Robert Caro's biography. Even though the narrative is straightforward: a fierce and violent struggle, then the good guys win, there's still something very moving when the story reaches its conclusion. But in the age of 'Black Lives Matter' and the presidency of Donald Trump, maybe also shocking at how much still needs to be done.