Fine Civil Rights Drama

Rating: 7/10 (13 May 2015)

"Selma" (2014), directed by Ava DuVernay, is a snapshot of the US Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960s and its attempts to get black Americans the vote in segregated southern states.
DuVernay has crafted a film which consistently refuses to take an idealistic perspective, ensuring the movie remains on a human scale throughout. It takes King as a significant but fallible figure; the British actor David Oyelowo perfectly captures the rhythms and cadence of his speech, although one of the strongest scenes in the film is where he is confronted over his marital infidelities by his wife, Coretta Scott King (Carmen Ejogo). This mixture of the historical and the personal is the film's most impressive asset, refusing to succumb to a hagiographic awe and thus bearing comparison in approach to Spielberg's "Lincoln" (2012).
Oyelowo embodies King throughout with admirable intensity and conviction; no better performance could be asked for. He's ably supported by a cast including Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon Johnson, Tim Roth as Alabama governor George Wallace and various other recognisable faces such as Martin Sheen and Giovanni Ribisi. However, it's clearly Oyelowo's film from the very beginning and is actually at its weakest when the film shifts it's focus, such as the scenes between Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover (Dylan Baker), director of the FBI. Not only have issues been raised about their historical credibility, but they fail to have the same emotional resonance and momentum as the sequences showing how King and his associates actually go through the complex problems of organising the march. The infamous attack on the protesters by the police and civilian militia on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, shows DuVernay's skills as director, the fog of tear gas and the wounded, running people, shot and cut like a war scene.
Cinematographer Bradford Young shoots with a palette of warm brown and golden tones and DuVernay certainly isn't afraid of letting Young's camera sit unobtrusively in medium shot, letting the audience experience the actors' interactions and performances, most notably when King and another activist just cruise along the darkened Selma streets, reflecting on recent, tumultuous events.
The film is at its weakest when trying to cover too much, such as factional in-fighting in different civil rights groups or when it starts to resemble standard Hollywood biopics with the final triumphant scene at Alabama's state capitol: it's undoubtedly stirring but feels a little formulaic. "Selma" is at its best when it takes an alternative tack to the usual Hollywood formulations and delivers an intimate portrayal of a crucial moment in American history.