Powerful

Rating: 10/10 (8 December 2014)

Many times, films of a historical nature are hard to appreciate, as in most cases one knows the story and the outcome. All our lives we have read, heard of and some even experienced the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King. There are many hours of footage, countless recounts of his modus operandi and volumes of writings that give insight into his minds. However, this film delves deeper than the King Jr. of Black History month, and gives you an experience with his humanity as a man.
Selma is quite possibly, the most powerful film ever to be made. It is very hard to describe with words, however, after leaving the theater I was obviously affected greatly by the depiction of the story behind the march from Selma to Montgomery. Director, Ava Duvernay, does an amazing job of capturing, what she refers to as, "small moments" that allows you to connect to the King Jr. character on a very intimate level. During a screening of the film, she spoke to this saying, "I knew that by doing a movie on King, we would have to do speeches, and early on I obsessed about the speeches. However, when I got on set, I began to focus on how to best capture the small moments that showed King's humanity."
In the film, King Jr., portrayed by David Oyelowo, experiences many emotions, not generally associated with the civil rights activist, including guilt, shame and defeat. Oyelowo does a masterful job of bringing these emotions to light in the most subtle way. When asked about his preparation for the role, he responded, "I always knew I would portray King Jr. I studied him, read and watched all of the video I could. I had been fortunate enough to play opposite of one of my acting idols, Daniel Day Lewis in Lincoln and see him take on the role as he did, so I did the same for King Jr. For three months, I became him. So much so that one night while looking in the mirror, I only saw King Jr., this may sound crazy, but I could not see myself."
Other strong performances include Oprah Winfrey as civil rights activist, Annie Lee Cooper. Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, Andre Holland as Andrew Young, Lorraine Toussaint as civil rights activist, Amelia Boynton, Stephan James as John Lewis and Trai Byers as James Forman.