Loved it!

Rating: 9/10 (11 January 2015)

"Selma" tells the story of the Voting Rights Marchs from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama of 1965, led by among others, Famed Civil Rights Activist, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., played by David Oyelow. Even though the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended Segregation and gave African- Americans the rights to vote, those right were being restricted, particularly in the state of Alabama. King, and other Civil Rights Activists were invited by the local civil and civic leadership to protest to repression. While King is the central figure, and the movie does some spend time on him and his wife Coretta Scott King's, played by Carmen Ejogo, relationship, and it's how it's effected by King's activism, the movie is not all a mini-biography o the late Dr. King's life at that point, and gives time to a number of the other prominent figures having do with the marches. As reported, the movie does indeed humanize King, perhaps as a metaphor that just as the way our country was flawed back then, Dr. King had his flaws as well. In the end, King is seen as the man who through sacrifices he and others made, endure to achieve the goal of the just cause of equal rights. I loved it – It was well shot, and well acted – you simply moved with it. Much credit to Director Ava DuVernay, and the production team, including the one and only Oprah Winfrey, who plays Civil Rights Activist Annie Lee Cooper in the film as well. Oyelowo, while performing Dr. King's speeches in the movie, doesn't try to do a perfect impression of the late Dr. King's voice (though that would have been fine if it had been the case), but does try to capture the physical movements, and powerful vocal style, and all around gives a very effective performance. I still have a few more I want to see, but for 2014 Releases – this is the best I have seen thus far – 3 ¾ out of 4 Stars, 9 ½ out of 10.