Review of Selma

Rating: Null/10 (5 April 2015)

Selma was a quality movie that helped the viewer sympathize and visualize the struggle of African Americans for civil rights. The severity of the brutality of racist southern whites and police on the African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement was shocking and appalling, especially when it was directed towards innocent children. Displaying the fact that children were ruthlessly killed in their own church by a bomb and that elderly men would be beaten by the police for peaceful protest in a vivid way creates a new understanding of the abuses that could not be given with mere words. The film illustrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and struggle with trying to lead the movement and instilled a greater sense of respect for him in viewers. The fact that he pushed on in the movement despite the tension it created in his family, Lyndon B. Johnson's lack of cooperation, and the threat of death for him and his family is remarkable. The movie clearly showed that the Christian faith of most of the activists was a driving force in the movement. Many activists were clergymen especially those whites who traveled to Selma to aid King on his March to Washington. Selma is a great movie that reveals many aspects of the Civil Rights Movement that are not commonly known and heightened the understanding of those that are.