Movie Review: "Selma"

"Selma": B+.  My favorite class during high school was Democracy, taught by Father Henry Schneider at Bishop Ryan my senior year, 1964-65.  The subject matter was approximately 25% civics, for which we had a text book, and 75% current events.  For that latter component, each student had to subscribe to Time Magazine, which in those days was the most respected nationwide purveyor of printed news in the country.  Every week Father Schneider assigned at least four sections of Time: on Mondays he quizzed us on the National section; on Tuesdays, the World section; on Wednesdays, the Business section, and any other section he deemed to be of particular interest; and on Thursdays, the cover story.  We had four Time-related quizzes a week, plus whatever test or quiz he threw at us for civics.  As a result, there has hardly been a time in my life when I was more up to speed in what was going on not only in the US, but worldwide.

And what a time of history it was.  The presidential elections were held near the beginning of the school year.  Although the results were lopsided -- incumbent Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson captured 61% of the votes, while Republican Senator Barry Goldwater ("In your heart, you know he's right") won only five southern states plus his home state, Arizona -- our classroom informal discussions and formal debates were a highlight.  The Cold War was in a deep freeze, and the Viet Nam war was escalating.  "Red" China was a mysterious enemy, and a hot topic was whether that country under its new leadership should be admitted to the United Nations.  Although the US had already won the race to the moon, the Russian and American cosmonauts and astronauts were still making headlines.  But the constant news item which captivated many of us virtually every week was the civil rights movement.

Considering Minot's remote location in a conservative rural state, I found the general attitude of the Ryan students toward civil rights to be quite progressive and open-minded.  Ryan was not the most diverse of schools.  But the proximity of the Magic City to Minot Air Force Base contributed to a culture of hospitality.  New military families were regularly appearing, having been transferred to the tundra from all over the country.  As a class, the concept of ingrained hatred based on skin color was hard for us to fathom.  Time Magazine's pictures and text surrounding the Selma to Montgomery march in the spring of 1965 captivated us more than any other singular event.  Selma was roughly the same size as Minot.  How could the two communities be so different?

In 2006, I finally had a chance to visit Selma with Momma Cuan when we took our memorable Dixie Trip. (Some day I may post about it.)  Even though it was more than an hour in each direction out of our way, Selma was on my short "must see" list.   The sight of the iconic Edmund Pettus Bridge, which looked exactly the same as it did in the 1965 national news footage, sent a shiver through my bones.  (Only the experience of seeing the Texas School Book Depository in person had the same effect on me.)  It was here that the marchers, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, made history.  We spent a little time driving around the town, which revealed no hint of its turbulent past from four decades ago.  Before we left we also checked out the Brown Chapel (actually a good size church), six blocks from the bridge, where the marchers began their brave expeditions.

Given my personal interest in Selma dating back to my Democracy class, you can understand why I was very eager and curious to see the new movie Selma.

The movie simultaneously covers a battle and a war.  The "war," for which film critics and historians have accused the filmmakers of playing loose with the facts, concerns the civil rights movement and the face-to-face strategy debates between Dr. King (David Oyelowo) and President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson).  According to the film, Johnson wanted to hold back on the push for minority voting rights, deeming it wiser to concentrate more on eliminating other aspects of discrimination, such as inequality in education, employment and the judicial system, and access to public facilities.  King saw voting rights as the piece of the puzzle that could not wait.  For example, as he explained to the president, blacks were practically barred from receiving a constitutionally guaranteed right to be judged in court by a jury of their peers, because only registered voters were permitted to stock the jury pools.  Unfair state voter registration rules kept minorities out.  One reason why King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference picked Selma for action is because fifty percent of the town's residents were black, but only two percent were registered voters.

The "battle" was the march from Selma to the Alabama state capital, Montgomery, a distance of fifty-four miles.  As the movie displays, there were actually three attempts at such marches, each bearing drastically different outcomes.  The Edmund Pettus Bridge, spanning the wide Alabama River, is the ominous backdrop for each expedition.  These three mimi-chapters were the unquestioned highlights of the film.  Even for those who are familiar with the story, the large scale dramatization of those events is impressively shocking.  The two-fold purpose of the march was to call national attention to the plight of southern blacks, and to put pressure on Governor George Wallace (Tim Roth), with the urging of LBJ, to use state resources to give black Alabamans equal protection under the law.  Missions accomplished, although not without blood, sweat, tears and even murder.

I was afraid Selma would fall into the same rut that 2012's Lincoln (reviewed here on November 28, 2012; C+) did.  Both movies are about famous American leaders who were at the forefront of civil rights movements and who were gifted with tremendous oratory skills.  The newer film, directed by Ava DuVernay, has a few too many scenes featuring lengthly speeches, but unlike the older film, those "preachy" scenes are spaced more smartly, with other, action scenes interspersed.  One doesn't get the feeling that the story is only a series of speeches.  So, my caution regarding Selma was only partially (maybe "minimally" would be a better adverb) warranted.

Another shortcoming which those two films share is the number of characters who appear but who are not identified or explained.  For example, Andrew Young (Andre Holland) and Ralph Abernathy (Colman Domingo) are well known names even today, but in Selma they're relegated to such minor parts that we are unable to identify them on screen.  Malcom X (Nigel Thatch) appears on the screen for only a minute or two, apparently for the sole purpose of establishing who he is when we find out a little later that he's been killed offscreen.

Wilkinson proves once again that he is a versatile actor.  His LBJ is exactly how I remember the old Texan, with the weight of the world on his shoulders in the Oval Office.  Conversely, Dylan Baker's version of FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover seems random and disconnected.  Roth's George Wallace falls somewhere in the middle; at least the greasy pompadour looked accurate.

I predict great things for newcomers Carmen Ejogo, who played Coretta Scott King, and Oyelowo.  Their speech and movements were obviously results of long hours of research and preparation for their respective roles.  The film contains innuendo of Martin's infidelity, a problem which, among other things, causes him to delay his participation in one of the marches.  The scene in which Coretta, wanting the truth, confronts her husband is a touching display of acting at its finest.

My parents lived in Texas for several months in 1942 after my dad enlisted in the Army Air Corps.  When I was a grade schooler growing up in Illinois, they once told me that, for many southerners, the Civil War was not over.  After watching Selma it would be hard for me to think my parents misspoke.  It's disheartening to think that Selma's historical events were "only" fifty years ago.  The need to carry on the battle for equality lives on today, and not just in Dixie.  Prejudice has not been eradicated, but were it not for the efforts of King and his supporters, America's twenty-first century racial chasm would be even wider.  That renders Selma an important movie.