A story that could have been better with more focus on Martin Luther King Jr.

Rating: 6/10 (7 April 2016)

The year is 1965 and every citizen in the USA still don't have voting rights. In the small community of Selma in Alabama, a woman tries to use her rights as a citizen to go and vote. She is unable to do so because according to the government of Selma, she doesn't have the right skin color. The political activist Martin Luther King Jr. hears about this and decides to do something. Selma is about the march that King initiated for voting rights for all African American people in the USA.
David Oyelowo plays the lead role as Martin Luther King Jr. and the supporting cast includes Tom Wilkinson, Tim Roth, Common, Carmen Ejogo and Oprah Winfrey. Selma has been the topic of debates all over the USA, due to its political context, its historical view but also because it was overlooked at the Oscars. David Oyelowo does an astonishing job in portraying the political leader and I do think it is a pity he wasn't nominated for an Oscar. Carmen Ejogo also did a great job portraying King's wife and was in my opinion also worthy of a nomination.
Selma is very moving in many ways and also quite horrible from a human perspective. At one point or another, brutal scenes are mixed with a happy home environment, perhaps to say that there is happiness and hope even in all this madness. I think the weak spot of the film is the lack of focus. We get a glimpse of King's private life and the hardship he and his wife endured, but at the same time the film shows the political and the historical context of it all involving the governor, the local sheriff and the president. In the middle of it all we have the Selma march.
The film has also been questioned from a historical point of view because some critics feels that the portrayal of president Lyndon B. Johnson, isn't entirely correct. Personally I would have liked to see more from King's private life, and a deeper character development. I think a film more focused on the psychological aspect and not the political, would have made a greater impact.
Selma is still worth seeing for what the march actually did for the USA as a nation. It is always important to look back and see where we have been, before we look forward to see where we are going. The film is an important life lesson for all of us, but I think it would have been more effective if it were a more personal film. The debates around Selma have mainly been focused on its historical context instead of actually discussing human rights, and I think that's shame.
David Lindahl - www.filmografen.se