Selma Review

 

 Douglas Smith Biz of Film 002

11.23.20

Selma Review

Ava DuVernay’s 2014 film Selma transfixes the audience through its retelling of historical events with the use of reconstructions, temporal techniques, and impressive acting. Due to the brutal nature of many of the events depicted, the story has an especially added weight to it when watched today as the US still faces such desperate racial divisions.                                                                   Set in the 1960’s across the US but often in Alabama and Washington D.C, Selma       follows the story of Martin Luther King in many of his most important battles and missions. Although the film does take some liberty with the retelling of events, the way in which it does is highly effective and paints a more developed and personal portrait of King that many viewers may have never envisioned fully before. While the film may somewhat diminish the role of President LBJ in acting on civil rights legislature and re order some of the events such as the early bombing scene and Nobel prize scene, the loose facts are there to be seen and experienced, often in somewhat experimental and effective fashions.                                                                                           One such technique that Duvernay employs is the slowing down of action to be almost sluggishly slow. This can be seen in the bombing scene as well as the scene in which the white preacher is beaten to death. Similar to the techniques of Director John Woo, DuVernay’s slowing down of these sequences enhances the viewing as it allows the audience to stay in the action for a longer period of time and thus reflect more so on the implications of these deaths and attacks.                         The acting in the film, principally by David Oyelowo as MLK is what brings much of the story together. Through working with the script and DuVernay as well as others, Oyelowo perfects a duality of King’s character which in moments of solitude was more personal and doubting, whereas in moments of public addressal was fierier and moving. This is one of the key parts of the film which helps bring it into a realistic area because it allows us to see King in part as more of a man rather than a myth or legend. It is important to receive these kinds of messages as it allows us to understand better how King was acting with many of the burdens that we can all relate to, and was not simply gliding his way through one of the largest movements in American history.                                                                                                                                            Overall, Selma is a culturally significant film for its depiction of events that seem so shocking yet happened so recently within many peoples lifetimes who are still alive today. As mentioned earlier, it is today that we are still seeing the effects of deep ceded racism and bigotry within the United States. While this can sadly be understood as a result of the nations shameful past, it cannot and should not be tolerated as something that can go on. For the truth is that today we are in a shameful period again, that is if we ever escaped one in the first place. What films Selma help to show us however, is that even in the darkest and least hopeful of times, there is a chance that the good in the world can be fought for and justice can be sought out. Of course, this does not mean that there won’t be blood prices to pay, but as has been integral to many events in human history, violence sometimes begets change. The question of course, is if that violence will be perpetrated upon the innocent, and if that change will be for the better equality and empathy of all people or not.