I saw Selma last month. It was very good. It was very sad, obviously, but the scenes of activists pushing to have voting rights for black citizens of Selma were powerful and heavy to watch. I thought the film portrayed King in a very fair and humanistic way, showing him as a real man and not as an untouchable saint. David Oyelowo was incredible in this. I also really liked the actors who played his fellow activists (even Common, who I didn't think could act before), Carmen Ejogo's stirring performance as Coretta Scott King, and Tim Roth was very good as George Wallace. Oprah Winfrey was also very good in her small but pivotal role, and I was happy to read that her character was based on a real person who fought back against bigotry and lived to be 100 years old.
Afterwards, I looked up some of the civil rights activists who were portrayed in the film, and appreciated the film's rich attention to detail, despite it's controversies over the portrayal of LBJ. I knew about the Selma march, the Birmingham Church bombing, and one of the white activists who died, but didn't know the inner story or more history about the civil rights activists who aren't household names. So this film was very educational to watch.
It is a shame it didn't win Best Picture. I liked Birdman, but didn't think it was the best movie of the year. And it is a shame that it wasn't nominated in the directing and a ting categories. I am happy to see that Ava DuVernay, who had been a big success at Sundance and in the indie world, got people like Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt, amidst others, to produce her film and make it seen nationwide, that is awesome for an indie film director. The film will probably be shown in schools for years to come, and that is a very good way to further educate youth on the civil rights movement.
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