Valuable if you weren't there

Rating: Null/10 (13 February 2015)

Having successfully had anti-segregation laws passed, black Americans discover that they are being denied the right to vote in Alabama so, led by Dr Martin Luthor King, a peaceful protest march is planned from Selma to Montgomery. However, the powers that be do not want this march to take place.
This reconstruction tells the story of an important but little known (outside the USA, at any rate) incident in the path of the 1960s civil rights movement. I am always wary of films which fall into the category which I mentally call "worthy" because that often means that they are so referential to the event/s they are depicting that they forget that they also have a need to engage the audience. Selma does not make this mistake – it is engaging throughout.
It is also both inspiring and sobering – to learn of the deaths that occurred, solely because people of colour wanted to be able to exercise the rights they had been fighting for over such a long time and to see, so well portrayed, the hatefulness they faced as well as the determinedly peaceful yet implacable way that fight was fought is to have one's (white, English, middle class) eyes opened somewhat.
Yes, this is a worthy film, but it works well as a film of general appeal, too.