Slice of History

Rating: 6/10 (9 January 2015)

I saw "Selma", starring David Oyelowo-Interstellar, Jack Reacher; Carmen Ejogo-The Purge:Anarchy, Alex Cross; Tom Wilkinson-The Lone Ranger_2013, The Green Hornet_2011 and Tim Roth-The Incredible Hulk_2008, Pulp Fiction.
This is not really an autobiography about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. but it does cover an important slice of his life. David plays the reverend MLK jr, who, among other things, led a crusade to get voting rights for African-Americans in 1965. The title of the movie refers to the southern town of Selma, Alabama where the historic battle began, and the journey ended up in Montgomery, Alabama. Carmen plays David's wife, Coretta. Tom plays the president-LBJ-and Tim plays governor George Wallace. For those uninformed about the time period, it was pretty bad for anyone with dark skin. Blacks were not treated equally, especially in the south, even though legally, they were supposed to be. David pleaded with Tom for changes in legislation but it was slow in coming-it just was not a high priority. The marches and demonstrations which David led were peaceful and non-violent, at least on their part. It took being shown some of the atrocities on the nightly news before a lot of eyes were opened for the rest of the country. Oprah Winfrey was a producer of the film and she also has a small role in it. If you are interested in the subject matter, it is an eye-opener. I'm old enough to remember watching a lot of it on TV, as it was happening. It's rated "PG-13" for violence and language-the N word is used a lot- and has a running time of 2 hours & 8 minutes. It's not one that I would buy on DVD-one viewing was enough-but it would be alright as a rental.