Selma Watched this last week. Very good film about Martin Luther traveling to Selma, Alabama, the most racist town of the south, to initiate the protest and march toward Montgomery to pressure the government on voting rights for Negroes. The task proved more difficult and bloodier than expected. David Oyelowo delivers a brilliant performance as Dr. Martin Luther King. Tom Wilkinson was very good as not-such-a-ally-president Lyndon B. Johnson. Tim Roth was hateful as racist governor George Wallace. Oprah Winfrey plays an ‘heroic black woman’ that delivers the unintended satisfaction of many viewers of watching the Oprah icon getting a beating (sorry, I enjoyed that!). The film’s forte’ is when the protests and marches are held and the tension plus subsequent violence erupts. It feels like being an on-scene spectator. But the quiet moments, with a reflective King just silently pondering which route to go next, are as powerful as well, as you can see in Oyelowo’s eyes the internal struggle without muttering a word. This is a very good film that not only is educational but very entertaining. 8/10
